Perfect Wedding
by Cicy B.E.G
Summary: Meet Esme ,she is sweet scatty and very curious , but would her curiosity be in favor when she'll discover all the mysterious deaths in Cralisle's life? and would it be in her favor to fall in love with him? "It's my first fic, be nice guys "
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Three months had passed, and the memory of the accident was still burning in my head - the accident that had changed my life forever.

"Everything is going to be all right," Em said while we were eating.

I rolled my eyes and didn't answer.

"Carl, I'm talking to you!"

"And I heard you."

"Well, then answer," Em mumbled to himself. "And they say I'm impolite..."

I started to laugh at his stupid comment, and his expression.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked.

I couldn't answer. All I could do was continue to laugh.

"Must be your cereal," he said smartly. "I told you; food without sugar can turn people crazy."

I finally paused in my laughter to ask, "What genius told you that?"

He looked at me with wide eyes and replied, "I have no idea. I think I heard it on Dr. Oz."

We laughed together for a moment. Then I looked down at my watch and noticed that it was almost 8 o'clock.

"I have to go." I got up from my chair and stretched. "I'm late. See you, Em."

Since my car was still broken from the accident, I had to take Emmet's car to work. Working at the hospital was not an easy job (neither was being a surgeon) but I loved it for reasons I could not explain.

When I got to the hospital, I changed into my scrubs and went to my office to see what was on the agenda for this morning.

Everything was peaceful until I saw the pictures on my desk.

The first one was of me, Emmett, Dad, and Mom. The second photo was me and my friend Logan on the day of our graduation. And the last one was me and Lizzy when we were in college.

I felt a sudden pain in my stomach, like someone had punched me. My shoulders began to shake and my hands began to sweat.

Already, on my first day back...?

I couldn't believe this was happening to me.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER-1-

-Before the accident-

3 months ago

I'd always had a wonderful life.

When I was a kid, everything I asked for, my parents got for me. My college years were the best. In my freshman year of college, I moved to my uncles house. He was working as a professor of medicine at my university. My mother's house was too far away from campus, so I would go and visit her every weekend. As for my dad, he had been living in New York with his wife Veronica and their three daughters: Tany, Kate, and Irina.

One day while I was in my uncle's office looking for some papers, I found the roster for my freshman class. Even though I liked to think I knew all of my classmates, I read through the list out of curiosity. That was when I found a name I did not recognize. Parker, Amanda.

Many if not all of the girls in my class were interested in me, and so I knew most all of them by name. But I did not know this one.

I continued to read the list to see if there were any others that stood out to me. This time as I read, I noticed there was a missing name. Lizzy...

Lizzy was a tall blond, with big beautiful blue eyes. She was basically the girl every man dreams about: intelligent, calm, and a little shy. She did not have many friends, and she mostly preferred to be alone. I tried to talk to her once, but she gave me quite a few hints that she was not interested in being my friend. When I told Emmett about it, he claimed he was sure that she was in love with me. I didn't listen to him then. By experience, I had assumed listening to Emmett in any circumstance was a huge mistake.

After a couple weeks I figured out that Amanda was Lizzy. When I questioned her about it, she said that she had changed her name when she was 8 years old, in the memory of her mother who had died of cancer. Little by little we became friends. I realized very quickly that I was actually her only friend, and after that we tentatively began dating.

It seemed I'd always known she was the right girl for me. All the good times I'd spent with her were the best I ever remember having with any girl. We were always together, even after we graduated. We took up our internships at the same hospital in Seattle.

We shared many things together, including patients. One patient in particular, I remember more vividly than the rest. She was a young woman who had fallen from the roof of a house and broken her leg.

After our first year of working together in the hospital, I started thinking about proposing to Lizzy.

I went to Cartier with my father, who was very proud of my decision. He even came from New York just to help me to choose the right ring.

"So what kind of ring do you want to buy for your future wife?" he asked.

'I am not sure. Probably something simple. She's a doctor like me, after all. I don't think she likes the bling bling." I smirked.

A salesman behind the counter pointed one ring out to me. "In that case, I think this would be perfect for her."

The ring he showed us was small, with a trio of tiny diamonds on it.

"I like to think it represents the three stepes of your life together. Past, present, and future."

Holding it up to the light, I had to agree with him. It would be perfect on Lizzy's elegant finger.

I bought the ring and went back to the hospital immediately, too excited to wait for my proposal. When I found Lizzy, she was with our patient - the one who had fallen from her roof and broken her leg. Lizzy was helpfully trying to lift the woman's leg into a more comfortable position so she could sleep well.

I smiled as I watched her care for our patient, until she noticed me and politely departed the room.

"I think my shift is over for today," she said with a smile.

"Mine didn't even begin," I groaned. "I start in two hours."

"Too bad," she said, leaning in to kiss me.

"Well, we still have time, right? Would you come with me to eat something? I had literally no breakfast this morning."

Her smile grew. "Sure."

Though it wasn't very glamorous, we settled for the hospital cafeteria and talked about our patients like all doctors tend to do. That was when Lizzy said something I found very surprising. She told me that was feeling very "attached" to our patient with the broken leg.

"Attached how?" I asked, curious.

"I don't know," Lizzy confessed. "She reminds me of myself sometimes..."

"In what way?" I wanted to know.

"I don't know...many ways. Like, both our fathers refuse to support us in anything we do. My dad told me that I would never have what it took to be a doctor. Her father is just the same, only he's trying to stop her from trying to become an architect."

I smiled softly. "So what did you say to her about that?"

Lizzy returned my smile. "The same thing you told me years ago. I told her not to listen to him. I told her that she is brilliant and that she can be whatever she wants to be as long as she believes in herself."

I couldn't resist her when she spoke like that. I took her hands in mine immediately, not caring who was watching us in the hospital cafeteria. "You know that I love you, right?" I asked quietly.

Her eyes were amused. "Yes."

Then, without thinking first, I knelt in front of her at our little table. "It's been quite a while since I've met you, yet every day with you makes me love you more and more."

Her eyes were now full of surprise. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but I continued, "Every day I wake up and I think of you first. I knew from the beginning that you were the right person for me. You were an amazing friend from the start."

She blinked a few times, and I noticed her breath growing short.

"Amanda Parker, will you be my wife?"

She did not say a word, and I started to get nervous. It may seem silly, but I was even more nervous when she began to cry. At first I thought it was because she didn't want to marry me.

I could not have been more wrong.

She fell from her chair straight to the ground next to me and hugged me. "Yes! Yes, of course I will marry you!"

Grinning like a fool, I took the ring from my pocket and put it on her finger. I was right. The ring was perfect on her.

To both our surprise, the entire cafeteria broke into applause. I didn't even notice that everyone was listening to us.

It was the perfect moment when I leaned in and kissed her like nothing else mattered in the world.

"Still two more days till the big event," said Emmet with a huge smile .

"Yeah," I responded.

"How do you feel, bro? Nervous, right?"

"Why are you asking me these questions if all you do is answer them yourself?"

He didn't listen to me.

"You know, Carl, the first night will be very weird for you."

"Why?" I demanded.

He started to laugh.

"Why?" I repeated again, even more forcefully.

"Well, because you won't know what to do," he said plainly. "Or did you forget that you're still a virgin?" He winked.

Now I was furious.

"I don't think that concerns you, Em."

"Yeah, I know. I was just going to offer some advice to my little bro before he gets himself hitched." He shrugged.

He was quiet for a while. I hated that I was going to ask him, but I felt I had to.

"Em?"

"Huh?"

"Were you nervous when you got married?"

"Nope."

I should have guessed what his answer would be.

"Why not?"

He grinned cheekily. "Because, baby brother, I didn't wait to get married to Rose to have sex."

***

I gave Lizzy a call before going to bed that night.

"Well, hello, Dr. Cullen," her sweet voice answered. "What's up?"

"I'm just fine, dear. How about you?"

"Good, but I'm afraid you caught me at a bad time. I was just going to sleep because tomorrow I have to wake up pretty early to get to the salon in time for my hair appointment." I could hear the humor in her voice.

"Right..." I drawled, suddenly feeling a little tired myself. "Well then, I'll let you sleep, baby."

"Why did you call?" she asked, her voice now a touch serious. "Do you need anything?"

I smiled at her concern. "Nope, I just wanted to hear your voice."

"Oh..." I could hear her smile. "Well, it was really nice to hear your voice, too, Dr. Cullen."

"So I'll see you tomorrow," I murmured.

"Mmmhmm...Goodnight, Carl."

"Goodnight."

***

The first thing I heard when I woke up the next morning was Emmett's voice.

"Carl, wake up. We need to go!"

"Go away," I mumbled.

"No... seriously, Carl, we have to go."

"Ok, I'm coming." I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Are Mom and Dad here?"

"Yes, we're all waiting for you," he said impatiently.

"I'm coming right now," I repeated, though my legs still felt like lead.

After getting ready like lightning, I stopped to look at myself in the mirror, taking a last deep breath before I took the plunge. Literally.

Emmett came back in and saw me. "You look handsome," he said in a jokey, girly voice. I glared at him, but I couldn't help my constant grin. "Can we go now?" he added, jerking his head towards the door.

"Yeah, just let me call Lizzy first," I said, grabbing my phone.

"Ok, but hurry up."

I chuckled. He was more anxious than I was.

When I talked to Lizzy, she sounded a little strange, but I didn't think anything of it. She must have been nervous, I thought, just like I was.

When we were in the car, Mom and Dad were fighting about the reception already. Emmett was eating as usual, but for the first time in a while, he wasn't talking while he was eating.

That was when dad began to ask stupid questions like, "Are they from Seattle like us?"

I groaned. He could be so shallow sometimes.

"Dad, first of all, we are not from Seattle. We are from Manhattan, and what does 'us' mean, anyway?" He opened his mouth to challenge me, but I cut him off. "You live in New York, Mom lives in Washington, and Emmett lives in Forks. I'm the only one out of all of us who lives in Seattle, so 'us' doesn't mean anything."

Silence took over the car after my little speech, and I realized I may have gone a bit overboard. He'd just asked where they were from.

Emmett was kind enough to answer for me. "They're from Nebraska, Dad."

Way to be awkward.

I couldn't help myself from adding, "And before you ask, they moved here when Lizzy's mom died from cancer, so please don't mention it in front of her family today, ok?"

Dad looked ashamed for once. "Of course I won't. I was just wondering what they would think of us..."

When Emmett heard that, he started to get ticked. "Why do you care? You don't even live here." He mumbled under his breath, "You should be feeling lucky that we invited you."

Here we go again.

"Don't start with me, young man!" Dad shouted. "Just because you're 26 years old, doesn't change the fact that I'm your father."

"Oh, come on, John," Mom intervened. "You're overreacting now."

"Don't you start with me, too, Sara. I was talking to my son."

"Dad, you missed the church," I groaned, watching the sign with the cross on it fly by past my window. Thankfully that ended the conversation.

When we finally arrived at the church, Mom went in to speak to the pastor, and Dad stopped for a smoke outside. Emmett was with me, trying his best to calm me down, but I was really feeling the nerves by now.

Guests started pouring in, and after about twenty minutes or so, the church was full.

While I was scanning the crowd, looking for my favorite relatives' faces, Dad called for me.

"Carl, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure." I sighed and went outside with him, wondering what lecture he might treat me with now.

But I was surprised to see how sad his face looked, almost like pity... Pity for me?

He took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and said, "Marcus just called me."

Lizzy's father? It must have been important. My eyes widened.

My dad paused before saying, "She's not coming, son."

I was in denial the moment the words left his mouth. "What do you mean, she's not coming? Of course she is. It's our wedding!"

"You don't understand, Carl. She...can't come. She...she...committed suicide."

My body felt like ice.

"I'm very sorry, son."

It couldn't have been true. It must have been a joke. A very sick, morbid joke. I felt like I was going to vomit.

Was it a sabotage? A threat? A dream? It just couldn't be real.

This could not be happening to me.

Lizzy was happy. She never said that she wasn't. She never showed the slightest hint of clinical depression. Nothing. Nothing at all that would lead to this...

I fell to the ground in a heap of disbelief. I couldn't even cry. Couldn't react. This wasn't reality. It was a nightmare.

Why would she kill herself?

I choked on a sob and gasped for breath. My dad bent down, tentative to touch me. But I couldn't stay here. I had to get out.

Before I got up, I stole the car keys from my father.

I bolted out of that church.

I don't know how I was able to drive in my state. I blindly followed the route to Lizzy's house, having memorized it by heart. My eyes were too dry to water, my throat too tight to swallow. I made it there by some miracle, and was shocked even more to see all the police cars at the site.

Oh, God.

This was real.

I went in, walking past the officers like a zombie who no one even seemed to notice.

Her bedroom was crowded with police men. There was blood on her bed.

I watched them put her in a black bag. She was wearing her wedding dress. Her hand was bleeding. Her face was white as paper. No color in her lips. Her cheeks were dull.

I stopped breathing myself when I saw her, just for that second before they zipped her up.

Some time later, it was all a blur, I remembe Lizzy's father coming to speak to me.

"It wasn't your fault, Carlisle," he said through tears. "It was her choice. I always knew that she would end like this, and it has nothing to do with you." He was very emphatic that this was not my fault. Could that be because he thought it was someone else's?

It didn't matter. I couldn't breathe anymore. I wanted to end all this pain. I didn't ever want to remember the horrible images in my head.

Lizzy in her wedding dress, covered with blood. Lizzy pale and colorless. Lizzy in the black bag.

After that scene, I had to get away. No one knew where I took the car and they didn't try to follow me.

I drank a lot that night. More than I ever had before. More than anyone I knew ever had before.

It was the middle of the night when I attempted to make it back to my car. I couldn't walk, and I couldn't see anything.

I still tried to drive, though.

Mistake or not, I didn't give a damn.

I drove very fast. And when the light turned red, I didn't stop.  
>_<p>

**Thaks to my beta ** **Mackenzie L who works very hard to make this fiction better **

**I hope you enjoyed it :) **

**please reviews **


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up to the sound of my phone, turned to my left and looked at my clock. At three o'clock in the morning, I wondered who the hell could be calling me.

I looked at the caller's name on the screen. Of course. Who else would call at this time?  
>"What?"<p>

I demanded in a weak whisper, I was so tired.

"Hey, Carl, you're not going to believe what happened," said Emmett. I could hear his smile.

"Honestly, Em, I don't care. I'm tired, I have to work in four hours. It's going to be my first day at the hospital after three months, so please let me sleep and call later."

"Yeah, I know," he said, "I'm sorry for calling now but listen to this: Dad is moving to Seattle with us. He bought a house there - a big house, actually!"

I was stunned for a second.

"Really?"

I thought about it, despite how tired I was. "Emmett, that's the worst thing I ever heard. Why's he moving? And why here?" I asked with a growl.  
>"Well, he said he wanted to be near the boys. Especially you."<p>

"Why?" I wanted to know. "I'm doing just fine now!" I practically yelled. I was mad now, and not because Dad was concerned about me, but because over the past three months he didn't say a word to me, and now when I didn't need his help he wanted to talk to me about Lizzy. It was the last thing I wanted to discuss with him.

"Look, Emmett," I tried more rationally. "I really don't want to talk about this, or her. I just want all of you to leave me alone. Please."

"Whatever you say, Carl. If you want to talk, I'm here, ok? And if you need me to take you to the hospital I'm here too."

"I know, Emmett. You're my favorite member of this family. I'll probably come to take your car in the morning. So we can eat breakfast together, ok?"

"Ok, bro, see you in four hours."  
>After that conversation with Em, I tried to go back to sleep, but instead I found my self thinking about my first day at hospital without her.<p>

I never did a surgery alone - she was always with me. But there's a first time for everything right?  
>I stayed like this, looking at the walls for what seemed like eternity, and when I realized that I was not going to close my eyes, I went to the park and ran for two hours.<p>

***

I was in the kitchen with Emmett, and Rose, who was cooking for us. We ate and talked about everything, except one thing. I asked them what they thought about Dad's decision to move. Rose said that she didn't mind, and Emmett was just like me - not happy at all.  
>The relation between Dad and Emmett had always been bad. I always thought it was because Dad left us when Emmett was only two years old.<br>"Everything is going to be alright, Carl," he said, poking me lightly in the side.  
>"I know, Em.'"<br>I went to the hospital and spent most of the morning in my office, looking at the photos on my desk.  
>I couldn't believe this was happenig to me. I couldn't stay here any longer. I took my phone and ran down to the ER.<br>When I arrived, I saw an ambulance coming, and the nurses and doctors running all around. Good, I thought, something to distract me.  
>I started to run with them, to see what the situation was. The sirens stopped and we opened the doors.<br>"Esme Evenson, 24 yeras old...She fell of a cliff," said the paramedic.  
>"Straight to surgery with this one."<p>

After five hours the surgery was finally over, and the nurses took Esme to her room.  
>She had some of the worst injuries I'd ever seen, and it was by far the longest surgery I ever had to perform.<p>

I went to my office, sat dawn, closed my eyes and started to think.  
>"Lizzy, I just had my first surgery without you," I spoke quietly to the frame on my desk. "I guess it wasn't that bad after all. I do still love medicine, but the pain of your loss still eats at me inside... I wonder if some day the pain will go away. Maybe someday I will find a person who makes me happy like you did. Maybe one day the pain will be gone, I will move on and be happy again."<br>I was happy. We were happy.  
>Why did you leave me alone?<p>

"."

I opened my eyes and turned to face the nurse, Sara, in the doorway.

"Your patient just woke up, we gave her some pain killers, and we did all the exams. She looks stable for now, but we'd like you to come check on her."  
>I managed a smile. "Sure."<p>

When I opened the door, I saw Esme looking out the window. She didn't even notice me. Then she turned away from what she was watching, and looked at me with a big smile on her face.  
>"You're my doctor, right? You have to let me go out," she said with a strong, confident voice. She was almost shouting.<br>I frowned slightly. "Well, I'm afraid that this can't happen at this moment as you're stil very sick. You have two broken ribs, and your right arm is broken too. I don't believe you can even move much without pain, Mrs. Evenson."

"Platt."

"Excuse me?"

Her face was grave. "My name is . Evenson is the name of my ex-husband."

I swallowed hard at the fierce look in her eye. "I am sorry ...I thought..."

"I know we still aren't divorced and that I'm legally still his wife, but..." She stopped mid-sentence with a small, strange smile. "But may I leave now, Doctor...?"  
>"Cullen," I replied. "And, no, you may not leave yet. As I've already explained, you just survived a very bad accident. You almost died in the OR, and if we didn't work very fast, you would be in the morgue now." Her eyes widened slightly, but my voice only raised more. "Please stop asking me if you can leave, because you can't." I finished harshly.<p>

I didn't know why I was acting like this. I never lost my temper on any patient. I blamed part of it on the fact that this Esme talked too much.

To my shock, she laughed. "What kind of doctors are you? Didn't they teach you at all how to treat your patients?" Her eyes were suddenly distraught.

.

"You jumped of that cliff?" I suddenly heard my self asking, not even understanding how the question linked to our conversation.

"Yeah," she replied in a dry voice.

Normally with cases like this we sent the patient to the psych ward, especially if the patient was listed as an attempted suicide... but I didn't want to send Esme there. Instead of immediately labeling her a psycho, I found my self listening intently to her, watching her like a curious hawk. Of course I knew the real reason I was willing to devote so much attention to this patient. She reminded me of Lizzy, in a way. And I thought that if I could coax a reason out of this woman for why she tried to kill herself, perhaps I would have the answer for why Lizzy also wanted to end her life as well.

Without even prying any more information out of her, Esme was suddenly sobbing on her bed. "He killed my baby!" She said with a devastated cry. "That bastard killed my baby. But you know what? I'm happy now that my son won't have to live with a father like him." She said with surprising defiance, even sniffling as she was.

I sat on the chair next to her and asked, "Why did you marry him if you didn't love him?"

"I was practically forced by my parents," she said, so quietly I had to strain to hear her. Then she looked at her wedding ring. "But... I am planing to restart my life."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before she said, "You know what? It's weird that every time I come to this hospital, it's you who treats me"  
>I was certain I must have looked like a fish when my mouth dropped open.<p>

"I don't remember treating you before," I said, confused.

"You did just 4 months ago when I had broken my leg," she said. "But you weren't my main doctor, then. Louisa, or Liza was..."  
>"Lizzy," I said. Her name felt like a punch to my stomach.<p>

Esme looked fond. "Yeah...Is she still working here? She was nice."

I didn't answer.  
>"Dr Cullen?"<p>

"She died "

"Who?" she asked, shocked.

"Lizzy."

Another punch to my gut.

Esme obviously didn't read into how close Lizzy and I were.

"Ohh, the poor woman," she mourned. "She was such a sweetheart to me."

I shook my head and stood up, staring out the window. I had to change the subject, and fast, before I started to think about Lizzy again. If I felt that punch in my gut one more time I might lose my breakfast.

"So Ms...Platt, what are we going to do with you?" I asked with a small smile. I surprised myself with how quickly I could turn my mood around. It seemed I could do anything to please this patient. Despite thinking of her as an eccentric at times, I found Esme pretty easy to talk to.

"Call me Esme, please," she answered with a smile that spread to her cheeks. She was very pretty. At first I didn't notice, what with her being dragged into the emergency room at dizzying speeds, but now she was somewhat beautiful. She had long hair that was a strange caramel color. Her face was like a heart, and her eayes where like two perfect brown almonds. Her skin was very pale but her cheeks where pink.

"Earth to Dr. Cullen," she said in a sing-song voice, waving her hand in front of my face.

I made a strange hiccup sound, startled by the sight of her hand so close to me.

She laughed very loudly for a woman in a hospital bed.

"Shh, people are sleeping," I tried to hush her with a finger to my lip. But before I could stop her, she stated to sing quite randomly, in an equally loud voice.

"Well I've been  
>Neglecting the good things<br>Oh Oh woah

Well I've been desiring  
>The good things<br>I'm biting the lighting  
>The good things"<p>

"Seriously, Esme, you have to stop," I hissed. "You are going to wake everyone!"

To my surprise, yet again, she obeyed me.

Her face was still flushed from amusement and exertion as she stared at me.

"I'm bored, ," she claimed.

"Call me Carlisle," I said.

"Well, I'm bored, Carlisle."

I could sense she was going to start singing again, and lo and behold I guessed correctly. Before she could burst, I ran to the door and closed it. God forbid she wake the entire hospital before the sun even rose.

_**"Clap your hands  
>Clap your hands<br>Turn the lights on my nights  
>This is life<br>And we only get once chance" **_

I covered her mouth with one hand but I just couldn't stop laughing at her muffled attempts to keep singing.

That's when a nurse opened the door. Esme stopped siging at once. I noticed the weird expression on the nurse's face. Shocked and...embarrassed?

At first it didn't make sense to me, but then I noticed our positions. Well, more my own position, since Esme was just lying there on her bed. I was almost on top of her, and my hand was on her mouth.

What the nurse might have thought!

I'm very sorry," the nurse mumbled as she was closing the door.

I knew she was going to tell her friends what she had just seen, and that made me very nervous.

I sat back on my chair, trying to convince myself to stay calm and not assume I'd be fired in the morning. Esme started to laugh again, as if nothing had happened.

"What do you think she'll make of that?" she asked enthusiastically, as if it were all some huge joke.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "But I hope she doesn't go sharing it with everyone."

Esme laughed some more. "That'd be so funny..."

I looked at her with a perplexed expression, not understanding how 

she could possibly find enjoyment in this. "I don't think so," I said with dread.

"Oh, come on," Esme groaned. "She's not going to say anything, because nothing happened."

"Yes, nothing happened, but she doesn't know that," I said, and tried to explain. "Look, imagine you are the nurse, and you walk into a room to check on your patient in the middle of the night-"

"And bam! I see the doctor almost laying on the patient. OH MY GOD, HE IS SLEEPING WITH HIS PATIENT, WHAT A SCANDAL!" She cracked up. "You know what, Carlisle? I don't care because... I don't work here," she added with a satisfied smile.

"Haha. Thank you so much for your support, miss." I gave her bed a light kick.

She didn't respond how I'd thought she would, and suddenly the aggressive humor had faded from her face.

"What's that look for, Esme?"

"Ten minutes ago we were just a doctor and his patient...but now I feel like you've been my friend since third grade." She shrugged.

Though I found it refreshingly shocking that she was so direct in admitting her feelings, I still had to admit... I thought of her as a friend already as well.

Thank's to my amazing beta Mackenzie L who makes this fiction better.

It' was a real pleasure to read your reviews ,and I want more .

So don't hesitate and write your reveiw XD


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N – (I don't own twilight or the characters in any credit goes toStephanie Meyers)**

**Thanks to my amazing beta **_**Mackenzy L**_** who make this fiction looks better :)**

**Thanks to **_**Lissyfaci**_** who gave me alot of crazy ideas for this fiction **

**And of course thank you so much for all your reviews .**

**I think I'll stop now :D**

**Enjoy...**

**chapter 3**

"Carl, it's only 5:45, don't you think you're a little bit earlier than usual?" asked Emmett.

"Yes, but I have million things to do at the hospital, and I really want to finish them tonight," I said.

"Ok," he answerd with a weird look in his eyes.

"Is there anything you want to tell me, Em?"

"No..." he said, then quickly changed his mind, "Actually yes, but not now. We'll talk tonight when you come back."

"Fine, see you later," I said.

I closed the door behind me and ran to the car.

On my way to the hospital, I started to think about my conversation with Emmett. I knew that I wasn't being completely honest with him. I was not going to the hospital because I had a busy schedule, but rather because I wanted to see her.

I did not really know why I felt like keeping this secret from my brother. I guess I was just afraid to see his reaction if he knew I was so interested in one of my patients...

~flashback~

I went back to my office with a a big smile on my face. Esme was definitely the weirdest patient I'd ever had. She was funny, she didn't care much about anything, and she never took things seriously like everyone else around me did. She was now one of my closer friends, probably my only friend with the exception of Logan.

My office phone began to ring just as I was about to leave the hospital for the day.

I answered it curtly. "Yes?"

"Dr Cullen, the chief wants you in his office."

I briefly wondered why the chief would want to talk to me...and why now?

"Ok, tell him that I'll be in soon." As soon as I hung up the phone, my nerves kicked in.

I took the elevator to my boss's office, knocked once on the door and waited.

Finally I heard him. "Come in."

I opened the door and was greeted by the black-haired man with a cold smile on his face.

"Good evening, sir," I mumbled meekly.

"Oh, Carlisle, have a seat please."

I gingerly seated myself opposite him at his desk.

He stared at me for a moment then began to speak. "Look, Carlisle, I'll get straight to the point. There is a, ah...rumor about you and one of your patients."

I resisted the urge to groan out loud. My rage at the gossip-loving nurses of this hospital was clouding my mind at the moment.

"Carlisle," the chief pressed, "Do you have anything to say about this?" When I did not immediately reply, he continued talking in a more grave tone. "You're aware that if we pick up any signs of inappropriate interaction between a doctor and his patient, the doctor will stop practicing medicine for 5 months and the patient will be sent to an other hospital." He paused, as if I needed the words to sink in, then he lowered his voice. "As you know, the patient in question cannot be sent anywhere else."

I almost had to laugh at the situation. All because she was singing and I stopped her? It was pretty ridiculous.

I tried my best to explain everything to the chief then, and he took it surprisingly well.

I guess he found the rumors just as absurd as I did.

When I was dimissed from his office, I went back to Esme's room to tell her. Of course she found it eveb more hilarious than I had.

After some humorous discussion, Esme joked that it would be funny to put on a charade of sorts, just to annoy the nurses.

I made her quite aware of how bad an idea I thought that was.

Esme of course took it all in good humor.

She told me that the nurses here were jealous of her because I didn't give them any attention.

I thought that was just about as absurd as the rumor they'd started about us.

Esme and I talked for hours that night, chatting and laughing, and sharing funny stories with each other. At one point Esme asked me for my cell number, and somehow I did not hesitate to give it to her, as I did with nearly everyone else. I guess it was appropriate enough for my patient to have access to me at all times, just in case an emergency came up. Lord knows, this woman had "emergency" written all over her.

I stayed with her for nearly four hours in all. It was almost midnight when I left to go home.

The next morning shortly after I'd eaten my breakfast, I heard a message alert on my phone. Not surprisingly, the message was from Esme

-Hey Doc, hope you'll be back here soon. My nurse is ** my off. :P

I smiled and typed back.

-Is that so? Why is she is ** you off?

I hardly waited more than thirty seconds for her reply.

-All she does is chew my ear off talking about her husband, her kids, her mom, her dog. . .

I laughed. I knew the very nurse she was talking about. Nurse Lucie was the queen of gabbing if there ever was one. I sympathized with Esme.

-Lucie right?

I waited for a moment.

-I don't know and I am not going to ask her. That will give her just another excuse to keep talking.

I chuckled as I found myself making my way towards the garage already. My shift wasn't until later that day, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to go in an hour or two earlier. Somehow Esme had convinced me that I was needed there as soon as possible.

-I live very close to the hospital, so I'll be there soon. I have something to say to you too, but not on the phone. Just wait till I get there.

-Ok see you. PS: Hurry up, now she's going on about one of her elementary school teachers. :P

"Finally," I said when the car infront of me started to move. In just under 8 minutes I was in the hospital's garage.

I dropped off my stuff in my office and headed straight for Esme's room, ignoring confused stares from hospital staff who most likely knew I was scheduled for the noon shift today.

Luckily, Lucie was nowhere in sight when I got to Esme's room.

Esme was alone, sitting on her bed with wide eyes and a determined grin. "So?" she demanded after I closed the door behind me.

"What?"

"What is it that you wanted to say to me?"

I laughed a little. "Oh, that..."

"Come on, Carl, are you going to talk or what?"

"Well..."

"Carlisle, talk!"

I looked at her very suprised.

"Promise you won't shout like that when I share this piece of news with you, Esme."

She covered her smile, pretending to zip her lips with her finger. "Oh, please tell me! I won't make a peep, I swear."

"Okay..." I took a deep breath and crossed my arms as I neared her bed. "I think we can get you discharged from the hospital tomorrow."

Her mouth fell open. So much for the fake zipper.

"Oh, my God." Then she squealed, loudly. "Really?"

I sighed patiently. "I thought you said you'd stop with the shouting, Esme?"

"Oh, sorry..." she murmured.

I smiled and sat down on the edge of her bed. "So what do you think?"

She looked down at her lap for a second or two, then peered up at me with uncertainty in her eyes. "I'm thinking...I need your help."

I leaned towards her, slightly concerned. "Sure."

"If I leave the hospital tomorrow, well... I don't really know Seattle all that well, so I'll need your help to find somewhere to stay."

I stared at her, perplexed. "What about your divorce case?"

She looked even more confused than I felt. "Didn't I tell you? The divorce got through on Monday. They sent the papers to the hospital."

"Really?" I didn't know why I was feeling so jubilant about the news. "That's fantastic."

She smiled a bit sheepishly and shrugged. "Yeah, it is. But-"

I never heard what she was going to say, because at that moment the nurse came in with a meal for Esme. Lunch already?

"Oh, my God," Esme groaned. "Not this food again. Seriously, don't you guys serve anything besides nasty, unsalted ravioli at this hospital?"

The nurse just shot her a miffed look.

"You don't like the food here?" I asked with a chuckle.

"No," Esme said adamantly, sticking her nose in the air. "It's awful."

"There is better food in the doctors' lounge, you know," I mentioned. "Do you want to eat lunch with me in there?"

The nurse's eyes went wide as globes. "I don't think that's...allowed, Doctor."

At this point I didn't care what rumors would circulate over this. It was just lunch. I was taking pity on my patient and offering her something better to eat. There was nothing remotely wrong about that.

Angered a little by the nurses constantly butting in on my business, I turned to her and said abruptly, "Of course it's 'allowed.' She's my patient, and she's dissatisfied with the meals being brought to her." I turned around and opened the door. "Coming, Esme?"

Esme just about leapt off her bed to join me. Right before the nurse could sidle away, I put my hand down on her shoulder and murmured, "You don't have to tell everyone about this, you know. We're just going to eat lunch."

The nurse did not answer before scurrying off down the hall. I watched her until she disappeared, then I found Esme by the elevator.

"Do they have brownies in the doctors' lounge?" she asked, her eyes bright.

I smiled widely. "I believe they do."

She rubbed her hands together and sighed. "Brilliant..."

I laughed openly. Lack of good food could have a profound effect on a person.

"Hey, stop laughing," Esme defended. "The food is like crap here. It's totally normal for me to crave REAL food."

I nodded as we stepped into the elevator together. "Understandable. So, what is 'real' food to you?"

"Cheeseburgers," she said with a starry look on her face.

I almost choked on my laughter. "You call that real food?"

"Hey, it's better then rubbery ravioli, right?" she said with a crooked smile.

I raised my eyebrows in consideration. "Not going to argue with that."

When we walked through the entrance together, nearly every doctor looked suspiciously up at us as we passed by.

"They're staring at us like we're aliens," Esme murmured. She tried to inject her usual humor into the comment, but I could feel that she was as uneasy as I was with all the eyes watching us.

"Ignore them," I told her. "We have every right to be here together. We're just eating."

I guided Esme past the espresso bar and let her pick out her salad and soup, and of course a chocolate chip brownie for dessert. I carried the food on a tray to a small table near the windows and placed it in front of her.

She wasted no time before digging in with her fork.

I watched her savor a cherry tomato with a blissful smile. Chuckling, I started back into our earlier conversation. "So, you remember how you were talking about needing a place to stay in the city?"

She nodded, more engrossed with her chicken noodle soup than with anything I had to say at the moment.

"Well," I continued more pointedly, "I just remembered that there's an open apartment in my building right now. I saw the posters last week. Maybe we can go in and check it out."

I knew there must have been plenty of other free apartments in Seattle, but I knew that subconsciously I wanted Esme to be near to me. She was the only person left who made me feel as comfortable as I had with Lizzy. Esme was the only person I could fully be myself with, that I could laugh with and not worry about putting on a good face when I didn't feel up to it. She was understanding of my feelings and not afraid to share her own with me.

Part of me was afraid that when she was discharged from the hospital, I might never see her again. This was my solution.

"Oh, that's fantastic!" Her eyes lit up, more for my suggestion than for her food now. "Let's go do that as soon as I'm outta here."

I grinned and handed her a napkin. "Sounds like a plan."

_

Eating dinner at Dad's house was never the most pleasant experience. It started and ended with awkward silence.

I was patiently picking away at my plate while Emmett toyed around with my cell phone. Dad finally spoke to us.

"Caroline and I are going to the museum tomorrow after work. Do you boys want to join us?"

I struggled not to look too disappointed. Frankly, his plan didn't really excite me. Familly trips were never my thing. I figured I could use my plans to go apartment hunting with Esme as an excuse to get out of the museum thing.

"I can't, Dad, I'm going to check out an apartment with a friend."

"Logan?" he asked.

"No, her name is Esme. She's a friend from the hospital," I answered. Although Dad's comment reminded me that I hadn't really spoken to Logan in a while. I made a mental note to amend that as soon as possible.

"Carlisle?" Dad pressed.

"Huh?"

"I was asking about the apartment girl. Does she work with you at the hospital?"

I did not fail to notice the peculiar emphasis he placed on the word "work."

"Not really..." I mumbled incoherently, picking at the food left on my plate. "She is a patient, actually."

I tried to shrug it off casually, but I had no such luck.

"What?" Emmett shouted, causing the whole table to jolt. "Is she your girlfriend or something?"

"No, we're just very good friends," I said pathetically. I realized too late that I shouldn't have mentioned her name to begin with.

Dad wiped his glasses off and got a serious look on his face. I prepared myself mentally for his upcoming spiel. "Look, Carl, I know you're just being the nice guy that you are, but a relationship between a doctor and his patient is typically frowned upon, isn't it? Even if you're 'just friends?'"

I frowned. Emmett didn't dare say anything, just stared between the two of us with his hand frozen on his glass of milk.

Dad wasn't through, though. "I don't get it, son. Why are putting your job in jeapordy for a 'friend', when you've already forgotten how Lizzy-"

He didn't finish his sentence before I stood up and walked to the door. I heard the squeak of Dad's chair behind me and before I could make my escape, he had grabbed hold on my arm.

"I didn't mean to mention that," he said emphatically.

"Yeah, but you did," I said, my voice shaky and sarcastic sounding. I pried his hand off of my arm and bolted outside to where my car was parked on the street.

Was that what everyone was thinking? That I'd somehow replaced Lizzy with Esme?

Esme was my friend - just my friend.

Of course I didn't forget Lizzy; the pain of losing her was still very potent inside of me... Except when Esme was with me.

When I was with Esme, I could think of Lizzy without that pain. Maybe it was because I knew that Esme had suffered through a lot, too, but she was always smiling, happy, and making jokes. Maybe I thought if I was around Esme enough, I could learn to deal with the pain the way she does.

When I finally got home, I pulled my cell out of pocket and called Logan.

"Hello?" the familiar voice answered.

"Hey, Logan. It's me, Carlisle." I winced at how awkward I sounded. "So...How are you?"

"Oh, Carl! I'm doing fine, I guess. It's been a while since you called..."

I could tell from his voice that he was surprised to hear from me, and it made me feel very guilty that I'd ignored him for so long.

"Yeah, look, about that...I'm very sorry. It's just that a lot was going on and I didn't have the time or energy to call or visit. Again, I'm really sorry. I feel really crummy about going so long without dropping you a line."

"Hey, listen, it's ok," he said wearily. "I'm glad you called, honest. I was just about to meet someone for dinner right now, but maybe we can go to the coffee shop tomorrow?"

He didn't want to talk to me. I could hear it in his voice.

I couldn't blame him, after all I didn't talk to him for almost 3 months. I didn't expect that he would want to talk to me for hours like we used to.

"Sure, no problem," I said quietly. "See you tommorow."

"See you then." 

~Three hours later~

Bring... Bring... Bring...

"Who the hell is calling me now?" I murmured to myself before answering. I didn't even bother to look at the number.

"What is it?" I said into the phone, knowing I must have sounded agitated on the other line.

"Oh, sorry, Carl...I didn't ment to wake you up," said Logan's nervous voice.

I winced. Great way for me to start back into our friendship.

"No, no... it's fine, Logan, I didn't know that that was you. What's up?"

"I, uh, just wanted to let you know I've gotta cancel our coffee plans for tomorrow. I just looked at my schedule and realized I have to work a full shift all day."

Thank God he sounded a little more relaxed now.

"Oh," I said. Pathetic.

I had a feeling he may have been lying to get out of going for coffee with me. But then I doubted Logan would ever think like that, knowing he'd been my friend for so long. It didn't make sense, did it?

"We can still do it the day after that, though," he proposed quickly.

Phew. I guess I was right after all. He was still my friend.

I was about to agree cheerily when I remembered with a smack to my forehead that tomorrow was also the day I planned to take Esme looking at the apartment. I couldn't tell her I had a change of plans. That would be too inconsiderate.

Maybe Logan wouldn't mind coming along with us, I thought. I couldn't imagine Esme saying no to more company. Maybe I should still call her and ask her just to be sure.

"Carlisle? You still there?"

I snapped out of it. "Yeah, you know what, I'll call you back in a minute and let you know about tomorrow, ok?"

He sounded a little unsure. "Okay..."

"Kay, bye."

I immediately dialed Esme's cell number. If I'd called the extention in her room, God knows what new rumors would spring.

The phone rang only two times before she answered with a drawn-out "Hellooooo?"

I smiled when I heard her. I could just imagine the expression on her face.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked. I wasn't sure what her reaction would be if I told her I might have a friend come along to see the apartment tomorrow.

She giggled. "Nothing. You?"

At least she wasn't shouting this time, but her voice was still very shrill on the phone.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you something."

"I figured as much," she said with a smirk in her voice. "You DID call me, after all."

I laughed nervously, at the same time not knowing why I was so nervous. "Well, my question is, would you mind if a friend of mine came with us to see the apartment tomorrow afternoon?"

She sounded both relieved and amused. "No, of course not! It would be a plasure, Carl."

"Thanks, Esme. This makes everything a lot easier for me."

"No problem, dude!" she said in a sing-song tone. She was in one of her goofy moods again.

"Ah, don't ever call me dude again. And Esme... please. stop. screaming!"

She burst into laughter when she heard my raised voice. "Who is screaming now, DUDE?"

I growled into the phone. "There's a difference when I'm at home and no one can hear me, but YOU are in the hospital, so you'd better stop it or they'll kick you out."

"Makes no difference since I'll be off the charts tomorrow, anyway," she said proudly. I shook my head and stifled a laugh.

"Very funny."

"See you then!"

-x-x-x-

ESME POV

It had finally arrived. The day I was allowed to go back into the world. But as much as I hated being stuck in a hospital, I wasn't quite sure I was ready for this.

I waited anxiously while Carlisle signed my discharge papers, thinking about my life and what I was going to do now. I knew that my divorce to Charles was no excuse to move back in with my family. Carlisle had offered me a wonderful opportunity to view apartments right here in Seattle, and truth be told, I'd rather be closer to my new doctor friend than my parents.

When I really thought about it, I wasn't one hundred per cent sure I'd want to stay here in Seattle; although the idea was certainly nice. Assuming I liked the apartment and that I was able to move in, I still wouldn't have a job or assets needed to continue living here on my own. I'd asked Carlisle to help me; I just hope he understood what kind of heavy bargain that was. I certainly didn't want to ask him for any more than I already had...

I took a deep breath and told myself not to panic. Once Carlisle let me out of the hospital, I'd be home free. I was ready to go on with my life; I just needed a few days or so to get my old fire back.

"Knock, knock," said a man's voice at the door. I smiled, knowing it was Carlisle.

"Come in."

"You ready to leave this place?" he asked with a grin on his face, waving my discharge papers in the air.

"Yes, please!" I said eagerly, jumping up from the side of my bed. I strained to look behind Carlisle where he stood in the doorway. "Your friend isn't here?" I was already kind of excited to meet the guy.

Carlisle looked confusedly behind him for a second. "Oh, no. He'll be meeting us downstairs near the recptionist." He gave me a hesitant smile then looked a little nervously at me. "Look, Esme, you really don't mind that my friend is coming along, right?"

I could tell he was worried about that from the get-go, but I didn't understand why. I was personable enough, wasn't I?

I just hoped all the worry didn't mean Carlisle was secretly embarrassed to have ME in front of his friend.

"No, Carl. It's a pleasure to meet another doctor friend of yours," I assured with a smile.

When I said that his entire face changed and he looked very stressed.

"What did I say?" I asked gravely.

"Nothing, just...Don't talk about the doctor thing in front of him, okay?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Why not?":

"Nevermind, Esme. Just trust me about this."

That was weird.

I shrugged it off. Carlisle could be secretive about things that didn't make sense to me. I just let it go and didn't let it bother me.

"Ooookay, then let's go!" I said excitedly.

"You're never going to stop talking like that, are you?" Carlisle asked me with a huge smile on his face.

"No, I won't," I responded with an equally big smile.

I think he secretly liked my upbeat manner of speech.

He opened the door for me. "Ladies first."

"Thank you."

When we were in the elevator, the nurses and doctors who were with us looked at us in that strange way they usually did. It really annoyed the hell out of me. I wondered how Carlisle could work with such ignorant people every day.

"Looking at us like we're aliens as usual," I muttered into Carlisle's ear.

"Well, now it's different," Carlisle murmured back to me. "You're no longer my patient anymore."

I smiled and suppressed a funny, pleasant feeling in my chest.

I wasn't his patient anymore. Why did that make me so absurdly happy?

When we finally arrived in the entrance lobby of the hospital there were so many people I could never begin to guess which of them was Carlisle's friend.

Before I could start asking any more annoying questions, Carlisle pointed him out to me. "Over there," he said and led me to the front doors.

Damn, he was ugly.

I mean, I would never say it out loud or anything, even though I could sometimes speak my mind a bit too boldly at times. But he was not the cute young doctor friend I'd imagined in my head, that's for sure.

I wasn't sure why I expected him to be cute. I guess since Carlisle was kind of a conventional hottie with his blond hair and pink lips that made you want to kiss them...well, not that I'd thought about kissing him often. After all, he was my doctor.

Ahem.

But this guy? He didn't look like Carlisle at all. He was tall like Carlisle, but that was pretty much the only similarity between them. He definitely didn't look as young and fresh-faced as Carlisle. His face was long, and he had small eyes that made me wonder if he was still asleep. His hair was long and shaggy, and he had the thickest eyebrows I'd ever seen.

His clothes were even worse than his face. He was wearing blue jeans with holes in them and a T-shirt with the face of big on it. Seriously? A pig?

Standing in front of this man, all I could do was stand with my lips pressed together and wait for Carlisle to introduce us.

"Logan, this is Esme. Esme, this is my friend Logan."

I smiled politely, determined not to embarrass Carlisle as I stuck my hand out for his friend to shake.

"Hi, it's great to meet you, Esme. I'm Logan," Logan said redundantly.

I couldn't help it. I started to laugh.

"Dude, I think I noticed," I said in a semi-sarcastic manner. Then I looked at Carlisle to see if he was mad. He wasn't. In fact, he looked as if he were trying not to laugh, too.

But when I looked back at Logan, his face was as red as a tomato.

Oddly enough, I think in his case, the look was an improvement.

**I think that's it for this chapter .**

**If you like it ...or you don't review anyway :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**This is not a chapter **

_**Guys this is a note to apologise for taking so much time to write chapter five .**_

_**I'll be glad if you excused me, I know that I should have send this note long time go . These past two weeks I had exams (And we all know that school is more important than anything else) **_

_**Honestly I didn't want to send a boring chapter .that wont be fair for you .Any way the chapter will be sent as soon as I can .**_

_**supersweet97**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 4**

**A/N – (I don't own twilight or the characters in any credit goes toStephanie Meyers)**

_**I know that this chapter is coming a little late ...sorry about that guys :D**_

_**enjoy...**_

**Thanks to my awesome beta **_**Mackenzy L **_

**and to **_**Lissyfaci**_** for her great support !**

**and also thanks to **

_Delectable Sweetness_

_CarlisleandEsme_

_Just4Me_

_XVampireEsmeX_

_lissyfaci_

_EsmeAliceRose_

But when I looked back at Logan, his face was as red as a tomato.

Oddly enough, I think in his case, the look was an improvement.

"So... can we go now?" asked Logan. Apparently he didn't like the fact that we were laughing at him.

"Yeah, let's get going," Carlisle said between chuckles. "It's not very far from here, just a few miles."

As we walked down to the parking lot, I wondered which car would turn out to be Carlisle's. When we stopped in front of a shiny black Mercedes, I nearly passed out. My doctor must have made very good money working at this hospital...

Carlisle looked at me innocently as he took out his keys. "We'll take my car to the apartment building, and Logan will follow us with his car."

"Okaayyy," I replied as I opened the car door. I was almost scared to touch the flawless vehicle. I'd never ridden in such an expensive car before.

"Stop talking in that silly way," he said with a little smile on his face.

I made a goofy grin at him and lolled my head from side to side. "If you hate the way I talk I so much, why the hell are you smiling at me?"

"I didn't say that I hate it," Carlisle defended. "I just think it's...annoying sometimes." He glanced selfconsciously over at Logan, probably a little embarrassed that his friend was listening to our ridiculous conversation.

"Still, why are you smiling?" I asked him, not the least bit fazed about Logan watching us.

"Because I want to," Carlisle quelled, but his smile only seemed to grow bigger.

"Yeahhh but-"

"Are we going to leave this parking lot or you two going to argue about this crap all day long?" Logan sighed.

Carlisle snapped out of it. "You're right, you're right. Let's all go. C'mon Esme."

As Carlisle ducked down into the driver's seat, I made a face at Logan's back as he walked away, purely for my own amusement. Then I slid into Carlisle's car.

The leather seat molded itself perfectly to my body as I sat down. I was so comfortable I could have fallen asleep right there. Across from me the dashboard was like a work of minimalist art. With all of the flat silver buttons and dim blue lights, the inside of the car looked more like the cockpit of a starship. 

"Your car is awesome," I gushed, running my fingers over the buttons on the side of my door.

"Thanks," Carlisle said, looking a bit uncomfortable even as he smiled. "I just bought it recently." He started the engine and began to pull smoothly out of his space. "My last car had been just barely driveable for almost four months before I decided to get a new one," he added, almost as an afterthought.

I screwed my eyebrows together. "Why, what happened to the last car?"

Suddenly Carlisle looked very nervous as if I'd asked something personal. It seemed unlikely that he could look so upset because he was attached to his old car. Clearly there was another story that went along with it. Still, I wished I hadn't asked.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said.

"No, it's okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "I was in a car accident."

He whispered the last bit as if it was the greatest sin. His handling of the car right now was so perfect as he merged onto the highway, it seemed impossible that this very same man had gotten into an accident.

I shrugged, hoping to assure him that I wasn't appalled in the least. "It happens." I looked over at him, but he didn't really react to my statement. "At least you're alive," I added, hoping for him to crack a smile.

He hesitated, his hand gripping the steering wheel tightly. "I was...drunk that day."

My eyes widened in shock. A faint little "oh" was all I could get out of my mouth.

I stared out the windshield at the road signs and cars zooming past, almost completely numb. Carlisle seemed too perfect a guy to have gotten mixed up in drunk driving. I knew that sort of thing happened often, but I just couldn't imagine Carlisle being the victim. He was so intelligent, so responsible, so mature...

"Did you get hurt," I asked carefully, "on the day of the accident?"

"Yes. Very hurt." His voice was dark. "I was in a coma for about two weeks, then I had to stop practicing medicine for three months because my right hand was damaged."

Out of instinct, I looked down at his right hand on the wheel. At first glance it hardly looked to have a scratch, but now that I knew the story, I understood why there seemed to be more markings in his skin than just the few aging callouses.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," I said softly.

When I looked back at his face, he nodded once as he stared out the windshield, his eyes full of sadness. I could tell he didn't want to talk any more about this, and I didn't really want to continue talking about it either. As gracefully as I could, I tried to change the subject.

"So... You told me earlier not to talk about the 'doctor thing' in front of Logan. Why is that?"

Carlisle still looked uncomfortable. "Well, you see...Logan and I went to the same college, and he was going to be a doctor just like me, but..."

"But what?"

"He didn't pass the exams, Esme."

I gaped in disbelief. "And that's it? He's embarrassed about not passing his exam?" Carlisle looked somewhat like he agreed with me that this wasn't that big a deal. "What does Logan do now?" I wondered out loud.

Carlisle smiled crookedly, which made me even more curious.

"What?" 

"He decided to become a fashion designer."

I let out a loud guffaw. "Wow! Now that's what we call a huge career shift! A designer? Really?"

Carlisle smirked and shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah, I know, but apparently he really enjoys his job."

"Yeah, but... a designer?" I couldn't say the word without choking.

"Alright, that's enough, Esme."

"You started it. Besides he's your friend, not mine."

"But I didn't laugh mercilessly at him when he told me that was what he had chosen as his career," Carlisle said civilly. "A fashion designer is a respectable job like any other."

Again, I burst into laughter.

"Oh, Carlisle. You're trying to tell me you didn't laugh when he told you this?" I shook my head. "You have got to be lying."

Carlisle's cheeks twitched. "Okay, I laughed. But don't tell anyone."

"Don't worry, I won't," I giggled. A flash of white caught my eye as we passed a huge sandy stone building. "Is this it?" I asked, pointing to the amazing structure outside my window.

Carlisle nodded.

"I love it already," I sighed, gazing up at it through my window.

Carlisle laughed. "Wait until you see the inside."

We parked around the side of the building, using a special pass to get through. Carlisle escorted me up to the main entrance where Logan met us by the front doors. I waited beside Logan while Carlisle used the keypad to get us into the building.

I can't explain why I felt so hostile toward the guy. I just felt that he was looking at me in a weird way. I was tempted to ask what his problem with me was, but he started talking before I could get the words out.

"So, do you have a job, Esme?" He looked smugly at me, like he knew the answer already.

My lip curled at his rudeness, but I didn't grace him with an answer. Of course he knew the answer. Why should I have to waste my energy explaining everything to him?

"Obviously you don't..." he said half to himself as he brushed past me to go into the lobby. Carlisle held open the door for me as I came in after Logan, prepared to break my silence.

"Yes, obviously I don't," I mocked him sarcastically. "First of all, I was in the hospital for months. Second, I am new in town. And thirdly, my job or lack of job is none of your business."

Carlisle looked at me in surprise while Logan just stared at me like I was a barking dog who wouldn't shut up.

I crossed my arms as a way to mask my embarrassment with defiance. I was always letting myself get carried away like this when people insulted me.

Logan looked over at Carlisle like he expected him to say something.

"Well, she is right, Logan," he said, and I smiled triumphantly. "It really isn't any of our business."

Logan looked very darkly at his friend. I decided to break the awkwardness. "Can we please go and see this apartment now?" I begged.

"Yes," both men answered me at the same time.

"Great, let's go," I said as I headed for the elevator.

I was so angry at Logan. Why did he feel the need to ask me such a personal question anyway? We just met and already he was acting all superior to me. It was almost as if he thought I wasn't good enough to be hanging out with him and Carlisle.

I thought as I walked ahead of them I could hear Carlisle murmuring something to Logan behind me. I hoped whatever he was saying was in my defense.

When we stepped into the elevator, I was stunned silly when Carlisle pressed the highest number button on the wall. Floor 17. I nearly squealed out loud.

The elevator sang a little song when we reached the top floor, and the doors opened slowly to reveal a huge corridor. There looked to be only two apartments on this floor, one on the east wing and one on the west. Carlisle opened the door to the apartment on the east side and let us inside.

I walked slowly down the marble lined hallway, my path lit by dim wall sconces that brightened as I took each step further. The first open door on my left showcased a spacious but empty master bedroom with wall length windows and a vaulted ceiling. I could imagine where I'd put the bed in that room if it were mine one day. Right in front of those windows...

I squeaked in pleasure and brushed past Carlisle and Logan to see the next rooms. The kitchen looked like it should have belonged in a building design magazine, not an apartment. Everything was shiny and white, almost heavenly. I could imagine any meals prepared in this kitchen would taste heavenly, too... even for someone like me who couldn't cook at all.  
>As I was admiring the view from the kitchen windows, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw Carlisle behind me, a bright smile on his face. "Do you like it?" he asked with a smile.<p>

"Like it? I love it!" I turned excitedly. "Show me the rest!"

He showed me the living room, the bathrooms, and the cozy office room. I could imagine storing all of my artwork in there. I could make it into my very own studio, and have plants all along the walls, and...

"Carlisle," I began warily.

"Hm?"

"I can't imagine not living in this apartment for the rest of my life. I'm doomed."

He laughed wickedly. "You do have the money to start out here, Esme. You know that."

A feeling of sheer glee welled up inside of me as I remembered the divorce settlement with Charles. I was entitled to his money - plenty of it. More than enough to pay rent for an apartment like this for at least two years or more. And once I found a good job and worked my way to the top again, I'd be home free...

"Oh, Carlisle, it would my dream come true to live here," I said as I twirled around in the middle of the floor. "But it would take me a while to buy furniture and get everything in order, and I'd probably need to find a hotel to-"

"Why don't you stay in my house?" He interrupted my stream of thought. I stopped immediately and stared at him.

"What?"

"If you'd be comfortable with that, of course," he added politely, as if I could have been offended by his proposal.

"You mean... you wouldn't mind? If I lived with you for a little while?"

"No, not at all." His face was aglow with sincerity. I wanted to cry I was so happy.

A smile broke across his face at the same time one broke across mine.

"So do you still want to keep fawning over this apartment or will you let me take you for some dinner now?"

I laughed. "Dinner sounds awesome." I looked around. "By the way, where's Logan?"

Carlisle looked a little worried. "No idea. Logan?" he called.

"I'm here," a voice answered from the hallway. He came into the room where we were standing and began discussing something with Carlisle. I was too overjoyed with everything to listen to what they were talking about. All I could think was that very soon I could be living here in this amazing apartment... and Carlisle was going to let me live with him until I was ready...

Carlisle was the most incredible friend I'd ever had. First he had helped me heal after my accident, then he'd listened to me when I'd had no one else to talk to, then he found me an apartment, and now he was going to let me stay with him until I could support myself on my own. He was more kind and generous to me than any of my family members combined.

"Esme?" his soft voice broke into my thoughts. "Are you ready to go?" 

I nodded and quickly skipped to catch up with them. As Logan went into the corridor, I clasped Carlisle's jacket and pulled him back to speak with him in private.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing, I just wanted thank you for everything you've done for me in the last few weeks."

He smiled easily. "It was a pleasure."

He turned to keep walking into the hall, but I stopped him again. "Why?"

"Excuse me?" He stared down at me in confusion.

"Why was it a pleasure to help me?" I hardly knew what had possessed me to ask such a dumb question, but something inside of me needed to know more. I needed to know why he was being my friend, why he didn't treat me just like any other patient.

"Because you're funny, lovely, and you're an easy person to talk to," he said with a charming smile.

I felt my legs turn to mush.

"You know, you're the first person who has ever said something like that to me. Most people think I'm crazy or something," I laughed shakily.

"Well, I don't think you are crazy. You just have a very...unique personality."

"Thanks, anyway." I lightly punched his shoulder.

"You're very welcome, Esme." His words were too soft to be real...and so was the kiss he placed so carefully on my forehead.

When he backed away to look at me, our faces were still so close. All that seemed right was to close my eyes...

"Are we going or what, you guys?" Logan interrupted, breaking the magical moment. I couldn't believe it. This guy was bad luck.

Carlisle and I both jumped out of our skin when we heard him approach.

Logan made an uncomfortable noise when he saw how close we were. His face was like stone. His eyes were angry. Why would he be angry?

Carlisle's cheeks were cherry red. "Right. Let's head out."

***

Something smooth with fur was moving against my face... Where was I again?

I wanted to open my eyes to see where I was but I was too tired to do that, so I tried to feel where I was instead.

I was laying down on something very comfortable. A couch, maybe? There was a big pillow under my head and there was a...

A deep breath next to me cut my thoughts. I wasn't alone. There was someone sleeping next to me.

I quickly opened my eyes then relaxed when I realized that it was just Carlisle. Last night's memories slowly came back to me... 

***

FLASHBACK

***

I was glad when we got to Carlisle's apartment at the end of the evening. I had been tired the whole way there, but as soon as I got into his apartment, all of my tiredness went away.

"What's mine is yours," he said, welcoming me into his home. It was where I would be staying for a while, and I decided I should get to know where everything was. I inspected the rooms with delight.

"Your place is huge," I said. It may have been bigger than my dream apartment on the top floor.

He smiled at me. "You like it?"

"It is Uh-mazing!"

"Oh, God, Esme, stop shouting like that!"

"Shouting is good sometimes. It makes me feel better. You should try it."

"No thanks," he laughed.

"Why? I'm sure it won't hurt you."

"Yes, I know that, but what's the point?"

"Nothing!"

We looked at each other for a moment before I started to laugh, then Carlisle looked at me like I was crazy or something, and he laughed too. We laughed for a long while, and it felt really good. He didn't talk about what happened earlier in the day at all, and neither did I. I didn't know what to say when I realized that I didn't have any clothes of my own to wear, but he was smart enough to figure that out by himself.

He said I could go to his dresser and take whatever I needed until I got to go out and buy some new clothes. I ended up wearing a too-big t-shirt and very roomy pajama pants. I felt a little silly wearing a man's clothes, but since it was Carlisle, it felt right.

I walked to the den where he was watching TV on the big leather sofa. I ran in his direction and jumped over the back of the sofa to land on the cushions beside him. He laughed hard at my antics. "You're crazy."

"I've been told that's why people love me," I winked.

"That sounds about right," he said softly as he set his left hand on my shoulder and pulled me slightly closer to him. That made me feel very happy... happier than I should be with just a friend.

"You want to sleep?" he saked me.

"Not really... Do you have any good movies here?"

"I don't know your taste in movies, but I do have few. They're in the shelf down there," he said, pointing to the black cupboard below the entertainment center.

I jumped forward excitedly and knelt on the carpet beside the shelf as I studied the titles one by one. One title in particular made me giggle.

"What?" he asked in confusion. At first I couldn't answer, so I held up the DVD where he could see it. "Shrek? Really?"

His cheeks were a little red.

"It is a good movie," he defended, laughing.

"Yeah, right." I set it back in the case and glanced through the other titles. "I think I know which one I'd like to watch," I said at once, pulling out the case of the movie. "Blue Angel."

"You like that movie?" he asked, a very surprised expression on his face.

"No, I've never seen it. But it looks pretty awesome."

"It's a very boring movie, you know," he warned as I started to take it out of the case.

"But I want to watch it."

"Suit yourself."

***

END FLASH BACK 

Carlisle must have been right about the movie being boring. I must have fallen asleep while watching it, because putting it into the DVD player was the last thing I could remember.

Now I had just woken up with a furry thing rubbing against my face.

That smooth furry thing was a gorgeous white cat with blue eyes. He jumped on my knees when he noticed I was awake, and the movement startled me.

I sat up and said hello to it. Great, now I was talking to animals.

Carlisle's phone started to ring. I really didn't want to wake him, but I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for an unknown woman to answer the phone in his apartment.

I touched his shoulder and whispered to him to wake up. He didn't budge. A sound sleeper, that man was.

"Carlisle!" I shouted, "Your phone is ringing!"

He jumped off the couch and looked around, disoriented from slumber. He stared at me, than at the phone, then at me again. His expression was too funny.

"Carlisle. Your phone." I knocked on his head jokingly before picking up the phone from its cradle and shoving it into his limp fingers.

He pressed the talk button and answered it. "What?"

I rolled my eyes. What a nice greeting he'd chosen. I hoped it wasn't his mother on the other line.

I watched Carlisle as his eyes went around the room. He seemed to be thinking a lot as the other person spoke to him for about thirty seconds. Then he finally replied. "Okay, I'll be there in a moment."

He hung up the phone and looked sadly down at me.

"What is it?" I asked in a flat voice.

"It's Logan. I don't know what's going on exactly, but he said he wants to see me as soon as he can."

"Do you think he's in trouble?" I sat up straighter.

"No, but it sounded a little bit serious for him. I'm going to check up on him right now, if that's okay. You'll be fine here on your own for a while, right?"

"Yes," I said, rolling my eyes again.

He smiled. "Okay then."

He went to his room to change, leaving me to wait on the couch in the den.

If Carlisle was not going to be here the entire day, then I sure wasn't going to waste my time doing nothing. I decided to find a way to spend my time constructively. Maybe I could visit town today and see about finding myself a job.

At 9:00 am, Carlisle was gone. He left me with a brief hug and told me there was plenty of cereal and fresh milk in the fridge. I helped myself to some breakfast and then took a shower in the guest bathroom. I changed back into my only outfit from last night and headed for the door to leave the apartment.

Passing by the open door to Carlisle's bedroom, I was distracted. It couldn't hurt to just have a peek inside while he was gone, could it?

I pushed the door open a little more and took a step inside. His bedroom was about as big as the one in my dream apartment. And his bed was right by the windows, exactly the place I'd imagined putting mine.

Everything was disturbingly tidy, making me wonder how often a busy doctor like him actually spent sleeping in his own bedroom rather than the hospital on-call room. There was a gray carpet that looked as if it had just been vacuumed two minutes ago, and hardly any clutter on his nightstands or dressing tables. The only real cluttered space I could see was the excessive amount of photos and pictures on the walls and tabletops. From where I was standing, a specific photo on his nightstand stood out to me.

In the photo, Carlisle had his hand on the shoulder of a blond haired girl. I had to admit she was gorgeous with her giant blue eyes and her long curly hair. They looked so happy together. I wondered who she was...

Suppressing a pang of sorrow, I left his bedroom and snapped the door shut behind me. I didn't really take in my surroundings at all until I was downstairs, heading out the lobby doors to the street. I didn't even know why I was so upset by the photo. Could it be because I just assumed Carlisle didn't have a girlfriend?

A little voice inside my head told me that I didn't know for sure if she was his girlfriend. She could have been his sister or cousin or something. After all, they were both beautiful blonds...

Something about the girl's face was vaguely familiar. I wondered if I should try asking Carlisle about her.

But then he would figure out that I was snooping around in his room while he was gone. I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts.

I looked around me at the busy sidewalk and soaked in the sun. It didn't matter now. Carlisle wouldn't let me live with him if he thought it would bother this girl at all, which probably meant that she wasn't involved with him. If he did have a girlfriend, I'd be the first to find out. After all, I was his roommate now.

I smiled at the thought and headed upstreet. 

_**That's it ...I did my job now it's your turn :)**_

_**Review Review Review .**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Thanks to my awesome beta **__Mackenzy L _

_**And to **__Lissyfaci __**for her great support !**_

_**and also thanks to **_

_Delectable Sweetness_

_CarlisleandEsme_

_Just4Me_

_XVampireEsmeX_

_lissyfaci_

_EsmeAliceRose_

_**For all your amazing reviews .**_

_**Any way here is chapter 5 **_

_**enjoy...**_

"I think I'll take the red couch," I said to the salesman. He looked relieved that I'd finally made up my mind after twenty minutes of looking at living room furniture.

"Very nice choice, miss. Anything else I can help you find? An end table or coffee table, maybe?"

I smiled sweetly at him, knowing he was trying to maximize his sale. I had to give him props for being so tolerant with a customer like me.

"No, thank you. I just need the couch for now," I assured him.

As the salesman sat me down and showed me some papers to sign, I could only think how excited I was to finally have the last piece of staple furniture for my new apartment. It may not look like the cozy home I'd imagined it would one day, but it was coming close. At least, now I could live in it comfortably.

Carlisle had been right all along. Everything had turned out well in the end.

While the salesman was in the middle of explaining something about shipment, I glanced at my watch. "Oh, damn!" I hissed.

"Is everything okay, miss?" he asked with a worry look on his face.

"Umm, not really... I'm very late for something, actually. Is it possible to reschedule this for another time?"

"Miss, all I need is the address of your apartment and we'll have the delivery all set." He gave me a funny look as he handed the pen back to me.

I breathed in relief when I realized my address was indeed the last thing to fill out on the forms. Signing papers made me so bored and distracted that I didn't even notice when we were finally on the last step of the process.

I quickly jotted down my address and booked it out of the furniture store.

The second I left the building, it was 5:30 pm.

I was due for a job interview at 6 on the dot.

_

"Finally!" I whispered to myself when I arrived at the library.

"A library? Seriously, Esme? You are trained to be an architect...An architect! What the hell are you going to do in a stupid, boring library?" said a little voice in my head.

"Oh shut up!" I answered in a low voice so nobody could hear me.

I knew that working as a librarian wans't an awesome job, but I needed to work, and until I could find something else, being a librarian was a good, respectable job. I had signed myself up for an interview as soon as I saw they were hiring on their website.

I opened the door of the library, then whispered to myself, "This time everything is going to be okay, not like the last time..." 

_**_Flash back_**_

"Okay, it's going to be alright. You can do this, Esme" I said to myself before walking through the elementary school doors. "It's like any other job..."

When I first interviewed with the principal, she said I was perfect for the job. But the disaster came when she asked me if I wanted to see the kids.

Of course I said yes at first, but then when I saw all thease beautiful kids playing and laughing...

It was like reality slapped me in the face. When I saw thoese kids, I relaized what I had lost. If I was smart enough to run away at the right time, my baby would still be alive right now...

As I watched the kids playing and laughing together, my eyes swelled with tears.

"Esme, are you okay?" The principal asked me with an anxious tone.

I had no idea what I was going to say to her. After all my enthusiasm in my interview, how could confess to someone that I didn't want the job she had offered me anymore?

My mind was clearly not in the right place for this. I had to be honest with her. Brutally honest.

"I don't think I am going to take this job after all. You see, I have a story, and not a pleasant one. There are some places that I just cannot face anymore. I'm very sorry for wasting your time." I didn't give her time to respond before I turned on my heel and left the building in tears.

It was raining outside.

And all I could think for the rest of that day was how much better my life would have been if I'd never married Charles.

_**_End Flash Back_  
><strong>_

As I entered the library, a lump formed in my throat. I looked around but no one seemed to be in there. I know libraries can sometimes look empty because they are so big and quiet, but this time I was convinced it truly was deserted from the top floor to the bottom. I wondered if they had asked me to come for a job interview after closing hours...

"Hello?" I dared to shout out, but I received no answer. "Is there anyone here?" I tried again.

"Let me guess. You are Esme Platt," the voice came from behined me, and my heart almost stopped beating in shock.

"I'm Heather. Sorry if I scared you."

I turned to see who was talking. It was a tall young lady, probably my age. I couldn't deny it, she was gorgeous with her short black hair and her big blue eyes. She was wearing a very short red skirt and a white shirt that showed ample cleavage. Her outfit made my trendy black suitdress looked like a nun's robes.

"Hello, Heather. I am here to see someone for a job inter-"

She cut me off. "Yes, I know that. Follow me."

She took me into a room that I assumed was her office. A lot of boxes full of books were everywhere in the room, and there was an unpleasant smell of cigarettes. Since there were no chairs in the room, she sat on one of the boxes and told me to do the same.

"As you can see, it's a mess in here. I just got hired last month as the new 'big cheese,' but now that I'm responsible for firing old help and hiring new help, I knew had to get my rear in gear." she started with a sheepish grin.

"Oh, well do you want to see my resume?" I asked.

"Not really, I just need you to be around almost all the time."

"So, I already got the job?"

"Yeah sure. I think you're presentable and cooperative, and I don't want to waste my time looking for someone else. This library is too dead. We need some new young folks working here to liven the place up if you ask me." Her face changed from bored to interested as she leaned closer to me with a smile. "Now tell me, is it true that you were living with Carlisle Cullen?"

I gaped at her in alarm and confusion. I had no idea how she knew this, or why she wanted details on the subject at all.

"How do you know that?" I asked her when I finally found my voice.

"I know a lot about people in this town," she said in a way that made me exceedingly uncomfortable. "Now tell me this; have you slept with him?" she asked with a perverted look in her eyes.

"No..." I answered weakly. I could feel my shock giving way to anger, it was just taking a longer time than usual. "Do you need this information so you can hire me here?" I asked hotly.

Her shallow giggle infuriated me. "Of course not, Esme. I'm just curious. I just want to know why you're living with him if you're not his girlfriend?" Her eyes narrowed but she was still smiling, which gave her an even more sinister look. I was momentarily scared out of my wits.

"I was... I was living with him for a while, yes. But I don't live there anymore."

"Why did he dump you?"

"I was never his girlfriend, so that's irrelevant!" I laughed ironically, throwing my hands up in the air. I felt like she wasn't even listening to anything I said.

"Maybe, but you want to be his girlfriend...don't you? Every single girl in this city does." She winked at me.

I frowned at her suspiciously. "Do you?" I asked with a sassy wag of my head.

"Nahh, not me." She rolled he eyes and crossed her legs. "I think the guy is a little off, personally. I mean his crazy sister disappeared years ago, and then there was his fiancée's suicide. I think he is cursed or something," she said with an uneasy smile.

Wait...what? His sister? His fiancée?

For some reason I was mad to now have this information. Why didn't Carlisle tell me about all this? I was his friend, wasn't I? We'd lived together for God's sake!

Maybe it was for the same reason he didn't tell me about his conversation with Logan the other day...

Heather interrupted my thoughts. "Oh, let me guess. He didn't tell you anything about his tragic history, am I right?"

"I don't think that is your business," I said firmly, trying not to tear up.

"Whatever you say. But you know, Esme, next time before sleeping in a strange man's house, you should know who are they are." She gave me a patronizing look as if I were a toddler she was trying to teach not to talk to strangers.

I hated myself in that moment for feeling like there was some truth in her lesson...that I deserved it. Had I really been foolish for accepting Carlisle's invitation to live with him? He'd never given me any reason to believe he would harm me. Did the fact that he never told me about his past make him untrustworthy?

I shook my head violently and stood up from the box I was sitting on. "I get the picture," I said, my voice shaking from oncoming tears. "Are we done here?"

"Yes," Heather said slyly. "I'll see you tomorrow, Esme," she said with her anoying smile. "Oh, and you can take this if you don't believe me," she added before giving me a small box.

I looked at the box, then looked to her in question. She stood up to face me and handed me a notepad and pen. "I'll just need your phone number in case I have to reach you."

"Sure."

And I jotted down my number.

"Thank you," I said to the waiter when he brought my coffee.

I looked at the box Heather had given me, somehow knowing what would be inside before I'd even peeked.

"You shouldn't do this, it's Carlisles private life," I reminded myself for the tenth time, looking suspiciously around me at the other customers in the coffee shop.

I ignored the voice in my head and opened the box to find dozens of old newspaper clippings. I took the first one into my hands and started reading it. 

I went home immediately after reading those papers. I didn't finish my coffee, and so I was more exhausted than usual for it being so early in the evening. I just wanted to sleep and to not think about what I read about Carlisle sister ... Beth ... that was her name. She was so young...

I couldn't get her face out of my head. The newspaper's black and white photo of her haunted me.

She looked so happy in the picture. A sweet ten-year-old girl, with long blonde hair just like Carlisle's. Her eyes were big and dark, and she was wearing glasses that somehow made her look more innocent.

The picture was perfect, and I couldn't stop smiling while I was looking at her face...until my eyes noticed the small black words under the photo: Beth Cullen - Missing.

Then I had to put the paper back in the box. I couldn't handle looking at the photo after reading those words. I went back to my apartment and left the newspaper with Beth's face on it on the table in my hallway.

I wasn't surprised anymore that Carlisle didn't want to share his story with me.

My phone started to ring, but I didn't recognize the number. That could only mean one thing.

"Hello?" I answered it.

"Hey, Esme?" I knew her voice.

"Yes," I sighed.

"This is Heather. I know it's late and all, but I need you here at the library. There are hundreds of boxes that just arrived and I want to get them inside before it starts to rain again."

I guess I had no choice but to spend the rest of my evening with Heather. I may as well get used to her. She was my new boss. I groaned internally and reached for my raincoat.

"Sure, I'll be there in a few minutes." 

_**_ Carlisle POV _**_

After a long day at the hospital, I felt like I'd just ran a marathon on an empty stomach. I just wanted to go home, eat something quickly, and fall asleep.

When I came to my floor, three men were knocking on Esme's door. Three men and a big - no, huge - red couch.

"Hey, Mister," one of the guys shouted at me. "We're sorry to bother you, but the lady isn't home, so can we leave the couch out here?" He gestured to Esme's locked apartment door.

"It's okay, guys. I have her keys." I reached into my pocket with a yawn and opened the door for them.

I flipped on the lights and helped them move the couch into the living room. I was on my way out when I saw a newspaper laying on the table in Esme's entryway. I wouldn't have stopped in my tracks if I didn't see my sister's face smiling back at me.

I took the paper and looked at the photo.

"Beth..." I whispered in shock.

She was so beautiful in this photo, a photo that I took long time ago. She was going to a school trip that day and I was driving her to school. She told me to take the photo so she could remember how excited she was for her field trip when she was older.

She'd had no idea that she would never make it to her field trip.

I couldn't think about this anymore. I left the newspaper where I found it and ushered the furniture movers out of the apartment. I gave them a tip because Esme wasn't there, and I didn't expect her to pay me back later.

I walked back to my apartment in a daze and stepped into the shower. It wasn't until the water hit the back of my neck that I seemed to snap back to my senses.

_"What was that old newspaper doing in Esme's house?"_

**Thant was it :) **

**If you liked it ...or you didn't review anyway .**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 6**_

_**At first I just wanted to say ...**_

_**R.I.P to the 12 people that got killed in midnight from Batman - Dark Knight Rises premiere in Colorado...My prayers to the victims and their families.**_

_**Thanks to my awesome beta **__Mackenzy L _

_**And to **__TheLissyMuffin __**for her great support !**_

_**and also thanks to **_

_Delectable Sweetness_

_Just4Me_

_the lissy muffin_

_EsmeAliceRose _

_**And also merci beaucoup à **_ _chachou35 __**ce fut un plaisir de lire ton commentaire,et j'espère que je vais toujours voir ton nom dans les reviews des autres chapitres !**_

_**That's it chapter 6 every one .**_

_**enjoy ...**_

_**Esme POV**_

"So, do you have a box of information on every person in this town?" I asked Heather after we put all the books inside.

"No...why?" she asked in confusion.

"Why do you have information about Beth?" I inquired.

"Oh, well, I knew Beth, so that's why I have this box. You know, I wasn't always working in the library. I was a teacher once and Beth was my student; that's why I have this box."

"So you keep boxes of information on your former students. That's freaky." I couldn't stop myself from saying it.

"Not all of my students had been kidnapped," she pointed out gravely.

"Oh." I looked down.

"I was taking them for a trip that day," she began reminiscing. "They were all in the bus but Beth said she forgot something in her brother's car. I wasn't allowed to let her go alone but I told her she could go as long as she would come back quickly... She didn't." Heather's eyes were sadder than I'd ever seen them. "She was my favorite student ...she was always such a hard worker."

"Did Carlisle's family blame you for what happened to Beth?"

"No...the police knew I had nothing to do with it."

"Really?"

She smiled at me. "You know, a lot of people think I'm crazy but I would never hurt anyone...not physically anyway."

"Did they ever find Beth?" I whispered.

"No."

A chill ran up my spine as silence set in around us. "Heather, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"You said something about Carlisle's fiancée?"

"Aha, I thought you didn't care?"

"I don't...I just...ahh."

"It's not a big thing, at least not to me. It was a suicide, and it was months ago."

"Carlisle really has bad luck," I murmered to myself .

"Yep."

"Anyway..." I shook my head and tried to let go of all the negative thoughts our conversation had brought up. "I have to go - it's five in the morning."

Heather glanced at her watch. "You want me to drive you home?"

"No, I'll be fine ...thanks."

"As you like. See you."

I turned to the door. "Can I ask you one more thing, Heather?"

"Sure."

"Where do you live?"

"Upstairs." she said sheepishly, then pointed to the ceiling. "I have an apartment of sorts up there."

"Ahhha... Well, good night."

"Night, Esme."

I stepped outside and suppressed another chill. The nights could be very scary here, especially when no one was out, not even a street cat to keep me company on my way up the road. I waited several minutes for a passing taxi and took a ride back home.

I rummaged for my keys and made my way into the apartment building. A song was playing in the hall as I walked to my apartment, and it lifted my spirits a little bit. While I was singing, I had a feeling that I wasn't alone in the hall.

I ignored the feeling and continued making my way toward my door. Before I could get my keys in the doorknob, someone pulled my hair from behind and thrashed me into the wall.

It felt like a nightmare, and suddenly I didn't even believe this was happening. I was in so much pain, I couldn't even move. I was too scared to scream. The only panicked thought in my head was, What the hell is happening?

I tried to move my head to see who held me against the wall, but they placed something cold on my right cheek which made me freeze in place.

"If you try to move again, I swear I'll kill you with this knife," said a male voice... a very familiar male voice. But I was too frightened to put a face to it.

"What do you want?" I managed to squeak out.

"I was about to ask you the same question," the voice replied cryptically.

"What?" 

"Why do you have information about Beth?" the voice said, fast and low, his breath on the back of my neck. "Tell me what you know about her death. And don't lie, or I'll find out." The edge of the knife was a chilling motive for telling the truth.

I began to sputter. "B..Beth? I don't know anything ...I took the newspapers from the library...I swear I don't know anything," I started to cry.

Why is this happening to me?, was all I could think. Why me? First Charles, now this?

"Is that so? Well, if that's all you have to say, then I guess I have no use for you right now. But if you tell anyone about this encounter, I swear that I'll kill you, Esme," he said forcefully.

I couldn't even speak. All I could do was cry and pray that someone would come help me.

He put his knife closer to my cheek, and I felt a slight sting of the blade, then drips of blood running down my face. I cried more but he muffled my mouth with his hand.

"Plea..please, I won't say any...anything! Don't d..do this!"

He pulled my head close to his chest then hit me against the wall.

I couldn't see clearly anymore at all. As I fell to the ground, my eyes went fuzzy, then everything went black. 

_**Carlisle POV**_

I'd said that I would not talk to Esme about the box of information on Beth that I'd found in her place, but I ended up leaving a message on Emmett's phone about it. The weird part was that he didn't call me back.

I had decided that none of it mattered now. Esme had texted me last night just before I went to her place. She said that she'd gotten a job at the library, and I realized that maybe that was how she came to know about Beth. Natrually, Esme was very curious. She would be just the type to see the headlines and want to read more about the disappearance of the little girl... Especially when that girl's last name was Cullen.

I cringed and hugged myself as I sat down on the couch. I was feeling even more suspicious and worried that Esme hadn't come home yet. Usually she would visit me at least for a few minutes before she went to bed, but tonight she hadn't come.

I didn't know why I cared so much. Esme was my patient once, and I was her doctor. That was the end of the story. We were friends now, nothing more than that. She had no obligation to visit me every night before she went to her apartment, and I had no right to be worried sick when she didn't show. Maybe she just had a lot of work at the library and didn't even make it back yet. Or maybe she was just very tired when she did come home, and she decided not to stop by because she figured I'd be asleep...

I looked at my watch. It was five till six.

I shot up from my bed. What was the point of sleeping if I was only going to wake up in two more hours? It was strange, but all I could think to do was go out for a run, so I put on my sweat pants and went out into the hall.

I took the stairs to Esme's floor just out of curiosity, and what I saw there made my blood freeze over.

Esme was on the ground by her apartment, and she was unconscious. 

_**Esme POV**_

When I woke up from my terrible nightmare, I was in my apartment. I wasn't sure if I was awake yet, because my senses were still very fuzzy. I felt like I'd had too many drinks or had fallen a long distance and hit my head so hard that I could barely remember what was real or not.

I was wondering why I was here in my apartment when the last thing I recalled was falling unconscious in the hall at the hands of a vengeful stranger with an eerily familiar voice that I still could not place.

I stood shakily and started to walk. To my relief, my place was just like I remembered. I put my hand on the wall while I was walking to steady myself. Pure pink walls, a happy color that I'd picked out myself so the room wouldn't feel so dreary.

I arrived in the living room, where everything was just like I left it the day I jumped from the cliff.

Yet more proof that I was dreaming.

I looked at the living room, at the table and chairs and the big brown couch, and the small table next to the couch, and the huge vases full of flowers.

I looked down and was shocked to see my belly was huge...

I was pregnant.

When I looked up again, I gasped, seeing Charles looking at me with a sinister smile on his face. I felt sick.

He walked across the room towards me, then he hit me on the head.

That's when I realized that I wasn't dreaming at all. It was just a horrible memory; a memory of the day everything ended, of the day he killed my baby.

I started to hear an angelic voice, a voice that brought comfort to me in the darkness.

"Esme, wake up!" it said. "Esme, it's ok, no one will hurt you, I promise, now wake up!"

I really wanted to wake up and see the owner of the voice, but I couldn't. I was stuck in that pit of darkness with all of my horrid memories, and the sound of a woman screaming in the distance...

"Esme, it's fine, no one will hurt you."

Why does he keep saying that?

I could hear an other person telling him that he couldn't do anything until I woke up. Little by little I could feel my self coming back to my body...then I realized that I was the woman who was screaming.

As soon as I relized that, I couldn't hear the sound anymore.

I tried to open my eyes; at first I couldn't see clearly, but then I could make out Carlisle's golden hair...and there was a nurse there too, and they were both looking at me.

"Hello?" I said awkwardly, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.

"Esme, are you okay?" Carlisle asked me, relief and panic mangling his beautiful voice.

Besides a few aches and pains and numb spots on my body, I guess I was.

"Yeah, I'm fine...I think...what happened?"

He looked at me confusedly. "You don't remember?"

"Ummm... No, I don't."

But it was a lie. Of course I remembered a man attacking me in the hall at my apartment, but how could I say that without sounding crazy? How could I explain to Carlisle that a psychotic man who may or may not be real was after me because I had information about Beth Cullen? What would Carlisle think of me? What would he do?

Before Carlisle could question me further, the door of my room opened, and I saw Heather come inside. I don't know how she was able to wear shorts in Seattle during the winter.

"Oh my God, Esme! I'm so sorry! I knew I should have take you home, and when I called this morning and a weird guy answered I thought you were just sleeping with someone and you didn't want to tell me! I didn't know that-"

"Wait!" Carlisle stopped her.

She looked at him for the first time since she arrived. "What?"

"Are you saying some 'weird guy' answered Esme's phone?"

"Yeah!"

"What did he say?" Carlisle demanded, suddenly looking very panicked and angry. He got up very close to Heather, his stance aggressive and beads of sweat on his brow.

"He just said that he and Esme were busy and that-"

"HE SAID WHAT?" I shouted before she could finish. I couldn't belive what I was hearing.

"Did he said anything else?" Carlisle pressed Heather, for the firs time not chastising me for screaming in the hospital. This was a dire matter.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, he asked me my name!" Heather said defiantly.

"And what did you say?"

"I said I wasn't going to tell him!" she scoffed, crossing her arms.

Carlisle shut his mouth and stared between me and Heather, as if he was hoping we would suddenly burst out laughing and confess to him that it was all just a joke we'd arranged.

Sadly, that was not the case. I was beginning to wish it was.

"Now what?" I asked the room, hoping someone would come up with an answer to all the questions racing in my head.

"It sounds like you have a case of tresspassing on your hands, Esme. But we can't do anything about this guy if we don't know who he is, even if he did hurt you!" Heather yelled.

"All we can do is phone the police and see if they can investigate. Maybe the surveillance cams picked up something suspicious," Carlisle added. I could tell he was trying to stay calm. Heather on the other hand was fidgeting and glancing all over the room as if she were afraid a masked murderer would pop out from any corner.

I sobbed in distress. Carlisle came to the side of my bed, his eyes shining with pity. He took my hand. "I'm so sorry this had to happen to you, Esme. But we'll make sure it never happens again, okay?"

I nodded, but knowing that I was keeping the full truth from Carlisle about the tresspasser made me sick to my stomach.

Carlisle hushed my sobs and kissed my forehead softly. "I have to go to work now, but I promise I'll come and visit you as soon as I'm done. Try to take it easy for a while." He patted my hand and stood up, arranging the covers on my body.

"Heather." He nodded to her on his way out the door.

She acknowledged him with a dim expression, mumbling something to him as he left.

I was shocked when Heather sprinted to my bed as soon as he was gone. "So what really happened?" she demanded

"Heather, it was because of the **ing box - someone saw it in my house! They want to know why I have it!"

"**...what the hell are we going to do?"

"I don't know but this guy seemed really concerned that I was researching Beth!" I whispered frantically.

"Maybe she knows something about someone," Heather guessed, her voice low and rushed like mine.

"I think she is dead, but I have to know how she died."

"Esme, I think you're already in too deep; you shouldn't get involved any more. You might get hurt again."

"I don't care, Heather. I'm going to get to the bottom of this mess no matter what. I owe it to Carlisle. He deserves to know what really happened to his sister." 

_**End of the chapter ...**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 7 **_

_**At first I want to thank all the followers of this fiction .**_

_**It's always a pleasur to read your rewiews guys so thank you so much ,and also thanks to my amazing muffin **__**TheLissyMuffin **__**she helped me alot writing this fic .**_

_**Last and not least thanks to my new flawless beta **___

_**Ok I'll stop now ^^ here is chapter 7 **_

_**enjoy ...**_

_**Esme POV**_

"Do you think it's related ?" I asked Heather.

"What is related?" She asked in confusion.  
>"Beth's death and Carlisle's wife suicide."<br>"She wasn't his wife and even if it's related, Esme, you have nothing to do with it. The police couldn't find anything, you need to drop the matter altogether."  
>"I don't know..." I whispered. "I think something horrible happened to them and I need to know what it was."<br>"What you need is to drop the subject and enjoy...your very boring life ." The last part of her sentence drew a big smile on her face.

"Haha, very funny Heather."

"I'm just kidding!" She laughed.

It was early in the morning, and we were sitting in her office.

We did a great job with the library. Heather did the interior; she painted the walls with a very light shade of purple. The bookshelves were white, and so were the tables for the students. When I saw the huge space she had, I asked her if I could make an indoor garden. At first, Heather wasn't very excited with the idea, she said; "It's a library not a park." But when it was finally finished, she was stunned by the result.

Since it's always raining, we placed a glass roof. The synthetic grass looks so real, that it'll make people think they are really outdoors.

I also added some pink trees, and a bridge over a little flowing stream that gives it the air of a japanese garden. I think it's the only library on earth that has an indoor garden, which I believe is the reason why half of the city will come to read or study.

"Uhm, excuse me?" I suddenly realized there was someone talking to me; a blond teenager. I smiled at her.

"Yes?" "I would like to borrow this book."

"No problem...you have three weeks to bring the book back, okay?"

"Sure" she said while I was puting the book in a bag.

When the girl left, I wanted to ask Heather to go to lunch, but she began to look at me in such an uncomfortable way, that I completely forgot about it.

"Is there something you want to tell me Heather?"

"Actually...yes" she was suddenly looking at her hands, avoiding my gaze. "I was wondering if...uhmm..."

"What ?"

"Ummm...oufff! Well yesterday, I was at the hospital for usual crap, and they said I was..."

She looked embarrased. She didn't even finished the sentence.

"They said you were what?"

She looked at me. "You know what? Never mind! It's not a big deal!" She smiled as if nothing had been said.

"You know Carlisle works at the hospital, right? I'll ask him, and he's going to tell me." I smiled at her suddenly horrified expression.

"He can't."

"I know ... I'm just kidding." I laughed. "You should've seen your face!"

I told her that I wasn't going to ask Carlisle, but I was lying. Heather was my friend and if something bad was going on with her, then I needed to know.  
><em>You are the most horrible friend on earth. <em>A little voice in my head whispered.  
>"For the last time shut the fuck up, Esme." I murmured to myself.<p>

I'm on my way to the hospital and I know that I'm doing wrong, but I care about Heather a lot. I have to know if she's is ill.  
>I grabbed some take out food, because I though it would be rude to visit Carl with empty hands.<p>

"Is he in the office?" I asked to his assistant when I arrived.  
>"Yes, but he is not taking any patients today. I can schedule an appointment for Thursday." she said.<br>"Oh! I'm not a patient, I'm a friend."  
>"Oh, okay. Your name, please. I'll see if the doctor can receive you." She said with a fake smile. She looked very bored and I couldn't blame her; sitting there all day, doing nothing.<p>

"Esme." I told her. "My name is Esme."

She went to the office, and I sat on a small black couch, waiting.  
>After a very long moment, she returned with the same fake smile plastered on her face.<br>"Doctor Cullen can see you now. Please, sign your name on the visitor book." She said while pointing at a black, heavy notebook on her desk.  
>I took a pen she gave me, and scribbled my name on the page.<br>She looked at my name for a while. "Platt?"

"Yes." I replied.  
>"Are you from Ohio?"<p>

I was a little shocked. _How the hell did she know?_  
>"How do you know?"<br>She smiled at me. This time the smile wasn't fake, it was real.  
>"I worked <strong>for<strong> when I was there, you must be **his son's wife**."  
>Just hearing his name makes me sick.<p>

"I'm not his wife anymore." I said as I walked to Carlisle's office. I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

I knocked the door just one time and slowly opened it.  
>"Hello." I said.<br>Carlisle was sitting behind his desk, smiling at me.  
>I smiled back. "Hey! How was your day?"<br>"How was your day?" He asked at the same time.  
>"I asked first," I objected with a smile.<br>"Well...as usual. I woke up, came to work, and when I was about to go to lunch, you arrived and here we are." he said  
>"Err...details?" I smiled.<br>"Well, nothing except if you think breaking **my **** on the floor while getting out of the shower is a detail." he smiled.  
>I began to laugh. "Yes, actually it is a detail."<br>"Your turn, how was your day ?"  
>"Uhmm, actually I wanted to ask you something..."<p>

"What?"

I hesitated for a moment.  
>"You know you can ask me anything, Esme." he encouraged me<br>"Okay...it's about Heather, she came here for something and she didn't tell me about it. If she is ill...well I want to know, because she is my friend and ..."

I stopped and looked at him right into the eyes. "And you are my best friend...I need your help. I have to know what's wrong with her."  
>"It's imposible. I can't do it." He said.<p>

"Why?"

"First of all, because I'm not Heather's doctor, and second; because patient confidentiality forbids us, doctors, to give any information about our patients without their consent."  
>"I won't tell anyone, I swear." I insisted.<br>He smiled at me.  
>"I'm sorry, Esme."<br>"Ouff! You are not fun at all, did you know?"  
>"It's the law."<br>"Well I hate the stupid law." I tried to persuade him.  
>"I'm not going to tell you anything, Esme..."<br>"You're always so serious ...Aren't you tired of your boring life?" I didn't think before saying those words, but as soon as I did, I regretted it.

"I'm sorry Carlisle, I didn't mean to..."  
>"It's okay." He smiled as we exchanged looks for a moment.<br>"You know what ?"

"What?"

"You are right. Let's figure out what's wrong with Heather."  
>He suddenly looked excited at the prospect.<br>"Carlisle? Are you alright?"  
>"Yes, I'm just...bored. Come on!" he moved closer to me, grabbed my hand and took me out of the office.<br>"Where are we going ?"  
>"First, we have to learn who is Heather's doctor, then we have to find the file."<br>"How are we going to find the file?"  
>"Every doctor has a locker in the hospital. If we find out who Heather's doctor is, we'll be able to find her file."<br>"Oooh...and where do doctors keep their patients files?"  
>We walked into an elevator. He turned to face me with a smile.<br>"In their offices "  
>My mouth dropped. "If we can do this, you will be oficially out of the boring zone."<br>He laughed.

When we arrived at the doctor's office, Carlisle smiled at the assistant. The girl went all red when he realized that his adorable eyes were on her.  
>"Good morning Lucy"<br>She looked at him for a long moment without saying a word. I couldn't blame her. He was really beautiful, and she was under the spell of his charm.  
>"Hello" she finally said .<br>"I just wanted to know if you could help me with something."  
>"Yes..." she replied with a weak voice. It almost made me laugh.<br>"Well, actually, a friend came days ago for tests and I would like to know the name of her doctor."  
>"What's her name?"<br>"Heather...?" he turned to look me.  
>"Heather Amity." I quickly responded.<br>She typed on the keyboard of her computer. "Yes, she was here three days ago. Her doctor is Justin Williams."  
>Carlisle flashed a smile at her and she went all red again.<br>"Thank you, Lucy."  
>"Anytime, Doctor Cullen."<p>

I pulled him by the hand away from Lucy.  
>"I can't belive you flirted with the girl to get some information. That's mean."<br>"Hey! Do you want to know what's wrong with Heather or not?"  
>"Yeah!"<p>

"Then shut up! Lets go."

I gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Doctor Williams must be having lunch right now, I'll go get find the file. Wait here, I'll be back in a moment."  
>"Okay." I replied.<p>

After 20 minutes Carlisle returned holding a brown file.  
>"Come on, we'll open it in my office."<br>I jumped to my feet and went with him back to the office. When we were finally there, he closed the door behind us and like a pair of naughty kids, we sat on the floor. He opened the file. It had papers filled with medical stuff I couldn't undersatand, but Carlisle was reading it like a book for children. At the end, he looked shocked at me.  
>"She is pregnant," he announced<br>I laughed in disbelief.  
>"Is that what she's hiding from me?"<br>"Aparently...Look we need to hide this."  
>"Because Doctor Williams is going to find out that the file is missing, right?"<br>"This is a copy, but I can't leave it here. If someone figures out that I borrowed a file for this purpose; I'll be fired." He frowned.  
>"Okay, I'll hide for you, just tell me where."<br>"Put it in my Locker." he went to his desk, and tossed me something I couldn't catch...  
>"What am I suposed to do ?" I picked up a set of keys from the floor.<br>"See my ID card,"

I stared at the card. It had Carlisle's picture and his name under it. "Yeah"

He moved close to me. "Go to the doctors locker room, this ID card is the pass. You'll put the file in my locker. I have to help with a surgery in fifteen minutes, so I'll see you tonight, Esme." He bent down to kiss my cheek. "Bye." He left.

"Bye." I said five minutes after he leftt .  
>I walked out of the office. <em>Gosh, why do I like him so much?<em>  
><em>You'll think about it later, now you have something to do, remember?<em> The little voice in my head spoke again.

To my luck, I found the lockers room easily. I saw Carlisle's locker, opened it, and put the file inside. I was about to close it when something called my attention. There were pictures glued on the locker that stood next to his. They all pictured the same girl; the beautiful blonde woman that I saw in the photo in Carlisle's room long time ago. I closed Carlisle's locker and moved closer to examine the pictures. I noticed someone had written something on the locker.

_R.I.P our beautiful lizzy we'll always remember you for being the best doctor this hospital has ever seen._

So she was dead. Maybe she was Carlisle's deceased wife. I was confused...The locker wasn't locked, so I opened it.

_If someone catches you...get out of here right now, Esme!_  
>"I should give you a name, I'm tired of calling you little voice." I whispered to myself.<br>The first thing I saw inside was a pink notebook.  
>"Her diary." I whispered.<br>"Or maybe not..." I said when I noticed a name written on it. _Beth Cullen_.

"Oh my god!" My brain connected ideas extremely fast. I grabbed the diary, put it in my jacket, and closed the locker. I had to get out of the hospital as fast as I could.  
>I hurried back home. As soon as I arrived, I shut the front door, walked into to my bedroom and closed the door behind.<br>I took off my clothes, got into my pajamas, pulled my hair up in a bun and crawled into bed.  
>It was strange how Beth's book was in Lizzy's locker...Maybe there was something in this book, maybe I was finally going to know what happened to both of them...<p>

_**The end**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Hello ,I'm alive ^^ I know it spend a while since I upload the last chapter , very sorry but sometimes my imagination is kind of stuck! anyway thanks to my amazing beta and to you guys my amazing readers ! **_

_**Ok I'll stop now this is ...**_

_**Chapter 8**_

_**Enjoy**_

_11th, October_

_One week left and I'll have to go back to school again. It would be a big lie if I say I'm excited. I never liked school, not because I didn't like to study; it's just that I have no friends. It would be better if I stayed at home, to be homeschooled, but my parents don't like the idea at all._

_My brother gave me this notebook when he noticed I wasn't feeling okay lately ._

_He said that writing what I feel would make me feel better. I don't think he is right but I'll try, got nothing to lose. I won't use it as a diary; I'll just write my story._

_..._

_I was a happy kid. A happy, but very shy kid. I've never really liked being the center of attention. Talking in front of a lot of people still scares the crap out of me. My confidence has never been that high either and I remember looking in the mirror and thinking I looked fat at the age of five. Anyhow, as I said, I was a happy kid. Everything was perfectly fine up until I reached the 4th grade. In matter of hours, I went from being a happy kid; to a depressed, suicidal one. Everything went downhill._

_I think it was the weekend before my tenth birthday, that I had had an argument with my parents. I don't remember what had happened but I do remember sitting on the kitchen floor crying, whilst mom was on the phone with her best friends. You see, my bestie and I used to take horse back riding lessons together. So, mom was on the phone with my bestie's mom for whatever reason I can't remember, and I was sitting on the kitchen floor crying. I remember begging her not to have to go to the next lesson, since it was going to be on my birthday. After about two entire hours of crying and begging my mom, without any result at all, I decided that I didn't want to go to school anymore. I remember telling my parents right away but as any other parent would do, they didn't take it seriously. I mean, who would? And that is basically how it all started. Nothing dramatic, nothing tragic as others might think. Just a simple decision._

_From that day on I refused to go to school. Every single day my parents tried to take me to school and every single day I refused._

_It went from being a nice little child to what I think, a kind of rebellious one. Whatever. I became a daily struggle to the whole family and hated myself for it. In a matter of weeks I couldn't even be at my grandparents' house without mom or dad. I couldn't do anything. I didn't want to do anything. I cried every day. I was away from school for over a month. The times I stood in my kitchen with a knife pushed against my throat are countless._

_So, after a while I was forced to go to these meetings where you had to talk to this person, a psychiatrist, about why you felt like you did and stuff. I hated it. I didn't want to go there; I didn't want to talk to anybody, so why would I want to talk to this random person? While this shrink asked me questions about how I felt about the things I did, I faced the wall and refused to talk. I kept a pokerface throughout all these meetings._

_My parents decided to enroll me in a new school. I didn't argued ...I didn't care._

_My first day at school was horrible. Everyone hated me because I was rich. They didn't even know me and they hated me._

_But this school had good things, like the English teacher; Miss Heather. She is awesome, she doesn't ask a lot of questions, that's what I like about her._

_Anyway after about a month in this school a girl named Amy Christina was making people sign on a paper, at first I thought it was for a study group or something. When I saw a lot of my classmates signing, I walked to her, she was happy when she saw me coming, but not in a good way I could tell. When I asked about the paper she didn't answer she showed it to me, saying: "Anyone who wants the horrible Beth Cullen out this school, please, sign over here."_

_I wasn't really surprised when I saw about twenty or thirty names signed on the list._

_I looked back at Amy, she was smiling. Okay, you can dislike me you can hate me, but don't you have a heart? I thought. I felt so sad and upset that I couldn't ask her a question I couldn't even open my mouth, I just went back to my class, took my backpack and got out of school. "This stupid school doesn't even notice when a kid leaves school." I said to myself._

_That was the first time he talked to me. I knew him, but I think he never cared enough to talk to me. He came to me and said: "Look I won't say anything to your parents about ditching school if you help me, okay?" Then, he took me to his house. I wasn't afraid, I knew him ... or I thought I did._

_Since it happened I can't even say his name, but I'm stronger now. I can say it, write it and shout it if I want._

BOOM

I jumped from the bed then fell to the floor after hearing the Boom on my window. _What the hell was that?!_

BOOM

I turned towards the bay window, and saw the monster. He was here outside waiting for me and throwing rocks to my window!

He found me, and he was going to take me away with him to my old fucking life.

I can't give up, not now! That monster killed my baby and almost killed me. I have a life now, with new friends. I didn't want to return to him.

I wasn't going to give up, but I wasn't going to fight with him. He was going to kill me if we did.

I ran to Carlisle's flat. I didn't have to knock, the door was already open.

"Carlisle?" I called him while I ran to his bedroom "Carl.." I didn't even finished calling his name again, when my body hit something. I almost fell on the floor for the second time that morning.

"You are hot." A man's voice said.

I opened my eyes. It had stumbled upon Logan. I followed his gaze and noticed that he was looking at the skin that my unbuttoned shirt showed.

"What a perv." I said with disgust, buttoning my shirt. "Where is Carlisle anyway?"

"In his bedroom." He answered with his freaky smile.

"You're a creep, you know that?" I said to him while I walked to Carlisle's bedroom.

I opened the door without knocking. Carlisle was in his bed. I couldn't see him because his quilt was covering his body, even his head.

"Can you breathe under that?" I asked, forgetting the reason why I was there in the first place.

He removed the quilt from his face and looked at me, his hair was a mess. _Damn he is gorgeous!_

"Oh, it was you! Why were you screaming like that? Did someone die?" He asked with a sleepy voice, ignoring my question."

"Yes, it was me. Well, not yet but I'll die if you don't come to help me right now. Charles is here and he wants to… " I stopped to take breath. "Well I don't know why he is here, but I'm sure he didn't just come to say hello" I said.

"Charles who?" He asked, confused .

"Charles Evenson, my _Ex_"

We stood there for a couple of minutes looking at each other. Carlisle looked angry.

"You can't go back to him. I won't let him take you, Esme." He said.

"That's why I'm here, I don't want to go, but I can't fight him alone."

Carlisle didn't say anything else. He just jumped out of the bed and walked to the door. I went right behind him. As we walked, I noticed that the 'creepy' wasn't here anymore.

"Where is Logan?" I asked .

"No idea, maybe he went to smoke or something."

As soon as we reached the street, I realized I was terrfied.

**Carlisle POV**

At the second he saw me and Esme walking towards him, he started to scream.

"Oh, this is the guy? Is this why you left me like shit, Esme?!"

I looked at Esme. She didn't look like she was going to say anything, so I did.

"What are you talking about? Look, you have done enough. Go home. Esme has a new life now." I said.

"With you?" Charles wasn't truly asking. He was taking it for sure.

"What?"

"She started a new life with you? " Charles wasn't looking at me when he was talking, he was looking at her. "Ha! Esme you killed our son, then you left me so you could live with this blondie?"

Then I interrupted his insolence. "Can you hear yourself? You're a bastard! After all you've done to her, you dare to come here like nothing had happened, and you accuse her of the shit you did? What do you want anyway? Why are you even here?"

Charles didn't look at me .

"Esme, baby I want you back. Please come back."

I turned to face Esme, she was looking at him in awe. His words sounded to her like a stupid joke. She didn't say anything.

"She is not going anywhere with you." I said. "Now, please, go or we're going to call the police."

"Maybe she is not coming with me, but now that I know where you are, I'm sure your parents are going to be glad to know you are okay. Maybe they'll come to visit you."

"I won't go back, even if my parents come here. I'm not going back." She said "You can tell them that I really don't want to see them, they screwed my life enough!" She looked at me then added. "Come on Carlisle, let's go back."

We started walking back to our building, but she stopped and looked at Charles.

"If you don't leave, I'm really going to call the police. Got it?"

Charles was so surprised by Esme's reaction, that his mouth dropped open. Apparently, Esme had never talked to him like that.

**Esme POV**

I went back to my flat after thanking Carlisle. I was really grateful to have him as a friend.

Speaking of friend I had to talk to Heather. I had to tell her that knew about the baby, that I knew that she's pregnant. I went to my living room, picked up the phone, and called her. She didn't answer, maybe she was sleeping.

I went back to my bedroom, leaned against the door frame with my arms folded across my chest. The room was in desperate need of cleaning, there were clothes everywhere; on the floor, on the bed and there were books piled up on the floor that had arrived yesterday. I didn't have the time to take them to the library. I started cleaning up, when I was finally over, I noticed that Beth's book wasn't in my room anymore.

"No, no, no!" I started to panic. "It was just here on the bed. I saw it when..." I tried to remember when was the last time I saw the book.

_When you went down to see the Charles! _The voice in my head spoke.

"Yes maybe…maybe I put it in the box with the other books from the library." I started searching, but the book was nowhere to be found, not on my bed not with the other books. Nowhere.

_Someone took it._

"Who?" I screamed to my head "No one has been here except me"

_When you went down the street, you left the door open!_

I was so desperate that I searched in the whole flat. I was on my way to phone Heather when I noticed a small, folded paper on the sofa. I opened it, the words inside were typed in big black letters.

**Stop investigating about Beth and Lizzy's deaths or you're going to regret it.**

The memory of the guy who attacked me a long time ago returned to my mind. _Holy shit, maybe Lizzy didn't committed suicide, maybe someone killed her._ I thought that the guy who may have killed her was the same guy who attacked me, and the same guy who took the book. I was sure now that Beth's disappearance and Lizzy's weird death were connected.

It was all written in the book. Beth was unhappy and she met someone, maybe that someone was the one who kidnapped her, and it had to be someone that she knew very well. Poor child. Probably Lizzy knew all about it, that's why he or she -Because I wasn't sure it was a _he_yet- killed Lizzy !

I was sure Lizzy hadn't committed suicide. She was a doctor who was about to get married. She was very happy. I'm so damn sure that she would have never thought about killing herself.

Neither the note, or the attack were going to scare me. I was determined to find out what happened to them, but from now on I was going to be more careful, very careful.

I had to tell Heather.

_**This is it for this time ,so guys if you have any question or recommendations don't hesitate and hit the button review .**_

_**See you soon !**_

_**Bye !**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 9**_

"Where are you going?" I trembled when I heard his voice behind me.

I turned around to face him.

"I… I'm going to Heather's." I answered avoiding his gaze; instead I looked at his shoulder.

I hated having to lie to him.

The reason I decided to visit Heather at 3:00 am, was to avoid seeing Carlisle. He was the only person who helped me when I got to this place, and I had to lie to him. I wish I could tell him everything; the truth about Lizzy and Beth, and what I think about the strange things that happened to them. But I can't, and I'm aware of it .

"Oh," Carlisle said. "Why?"

"…Because she can't be alone. You know she needs help because she is pregnant, and she can't do everything by herself so..." I said anxiously.

I had the feeling Carlisle knew I was lying. I always feel that way when I'm with him; like the truth it's written on my forehead, and he can read it all.

"Why do you have to go now? Why not later?" He inquired.

"I...just…I want to go now," I got a little frustrated.

"Want me to give you a ride?" He asked.

I didn't want to go with him because I knew I was going to blurt out the truth if the conversation kept going on, but I didn't want to go out on my own at 3:00 am either, especially when there was someone in my house earlier that night.

I was silent for a moment, and Carlisle looked at me confused.

"Alright. Why not?" I whispered.

He smiled at me. "I'll go get my keys."

"Ok!"

"So what's new?" Carlisle asked smiling.

"Not much, I went with Heather to a tortoise race and it was very cool." I said smiling.

"A tortoise race? Really? " his smile grew wider.

"I know it's weird but it was quite fun watching them run...crawl." I corrected myself. "They were so slow that Heather felt like she would have a heart attack by the end of the race."

"A tortoise race." He whispered to himself, then chuckled .

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I'll take you with me to the next race." I invited him.

Carlisle turned to look at me with a bright smile on his face.

"That would be very fun!" He said.

"What about you? How was your week?" I asked.

"Pretty normal. Oh, we have a new surgeon in the hospital; I'm supposed to train her. Her name is Alison McCartney."

The past two months with Heather were really fun. We re-painted her apartment and started to buy stuff for the baby. I could tell they were the most amazing months of my life if Carlisle hadn't been acting so weird. The last time I saw him, was the day he drove me to Heather's place. That week, I called him to see if he was okay, and if he wanted to go to lunch. I could tell he was very nervous on the phone. He said he was busy and that he'd call me later.

He never called.

I was worried about him. It wasn't like him not to call, and disappear. When I was living in my flat, we would spend all our weekends together, even when he was busy, he would spend some time with me. What could've changed him?

Carlisle POV...

"Does she know you like her?"

My eyes couldn't focus on the files anymore when I listened to Rosalie's question.

"Who?"

"Esme."

I stared at her.

"Why do you think I like Esme? We are just friends."

"Yeah, yeah; listen Carl she is not..."

I looked at Rosalie to understand why she stopped talking all of a sudden.

I saw guilt in her eyes.

"She is not what? Rose? "

"Lizzy. I'm talking about Lizzy, and living depressively alone is not going to bring her back Carl, don't you think it's time to move on? "

"Rose," I mumbled "Esme is amazing and I love her. She is the only person that doesn't make me think about Lizzy, or even Beth. But I'm afraid that ..." My hands began to sweat and I couldn't finish the sentence.

"I can't forget the past Rose, and Esme deserves someone better."

She looked at me with a sarcastic smile.

"The girl is totally into you, I 'm sure that if you ask her out she will be so happy!"

"Were you even listening to me Rose?"

"Nah, you know what? You two are like the perfect couple, you've been through a lot and she has been through a lot, so it will be like a fresh start for both of you."

"I don't know Rose...I don't know."

Heather's POV

3 hours later

It was midnight. The silence in the air, was suddenly broken by the rain.

"I wonder if Esme is coming back soon." I asked to myself. "I have to tell her about Charlotte, I'm sure she is going to say it's connected to Beth and Lizzy."

I have to admit that maybe she is right after all; maybe what happened to Beth , Lizzy and even Charlotte is connected, but not one person in this town noticed it. We all live our lives discretely, and when something odd happens, we think it was just meant to be. We don't think like Esme because we dislike to disturb our perfect boring lives. Esme is exactlly what we need, she is special and she is never afraid to discover things, even if it's going to hurt her; she always wants to know the truth.

The sound of the phone ringing in the living room dragged me out of my thoughts. I stood up heavily and walked down the corridor that Esme had decorated when she lived here.

I looked at the screen of my phone before answering.

"Hello Esme? Where are you?" I asked, relieved to know she was ok.

"Oh my god Heather you won't believe what just happened, I mean it's not like I was waiting for it to happen, no not at all, but he asked..."

"Wait," I cut her off" I'm not following you. What happened? Who asked you what?"

"Carlisle asked me out! On a date! CAN YOU BELIVE IT?" She screamed.

I suddenly forgot about Charlotte.

"Carlisle asked you out? Oh my god! What did you say? You said yes of course! Oh Esme it's amazing! I'm so happy for you, come home right now and tell me every single detail."

She laughed "Deal! I'm on my way!"

I took my jacket and went outside.

About ten minutes later, Esme was getting out of her car. The strong air messed up her hair, and all of a sudden, Charlotte came back to my mind. Her smile faded as she saw my expressions change.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Um, come in. I'll tell you inside." I said.

We walked up stairs to sit on the sofa .

"What is it?" She asked anxiously.

"You know? I found out something today…" I began.

She looked at me, waiting for me to say more.

"See, when Beth went missing, during the same time, a girl named Charlotte Pearce was sent to a mental hospital. At first I thought it was a coincidence but then a friend of mine who works there said that Charlotte keep saying that she wasn't crazy. Apparently no one believed her, and no one visited her except her parents .

"What's weird about that?" she cut me off .

"Like I said; no one visited her except her parents, that's why the girl who works there was very surprised when someone named Amanda Parker went to see her."

"I still don't get it." Esme said.

"Amanda Parker was also known as Lizzy."

"Lizzy? Carlisle's Lizzy?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Well no one knows Lizzy died three days after."

"No way!"

We stayed quiet for seconds. Esme closed her eyes and started talking.

"Look Heather, something really bad happened to these girls, and someone is afraid that we'll figure it out ."

"I know Esme. We can't get too involved, or we'll end up like them."

"Yeah, but we can't pretend that nothing happened." She said.

"I know." I said. "But we have to be very careful; we have to make sure no one knows we are going to see Charlotte."

"Wait, I'm not following you." She stopped me. "When are we going to see Charlotte?"

"As soon as possible, but first," I got up from my chair and stretched, "We have to prepare you for your big date with the doctor."

Esme rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah, but first I'm going to sleep."

**Well this was the end of chapter 9, hope you liked it guys .**


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